THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 


COMMODORE  BYRON  MCCANDLESS 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL,  LL.D. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 


SELECTIONS  FROM  HIS  WRITINGS 


EDITED    BY 


JAMES  O.  MURRAY,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

DEAN  AND  PROFESSOR  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE  IN  PRINCETON  COLLEGE 


CAMBRIDGE 

at  ti)c 

1890 


COPYRIGHT,  1890, 
BY  J.  O.  MURRAY. 


E 
ni 

Gil 


"If  love  lives  through  all  life;  and  survives  through  all  sorrow;  and  re- 
mains steadfast  with  us  through  all  changes ;  and  in  all  darkness  of  spirit 
burns  brightly ;  and,  if  we  die,  deplores  us  forever,  and  loves  still  equally ; 
and  exists  with  the  very  last  gasp  and  throb  of  the  faithful  bosom  whence  it 
passes  with  the  pure  soul,  beyond  death ;  surely  it  shall  be  immortal !  Though 
we  who  remain  are  separated  from  it,  is  it  not  ours  in  Heaven  ?  If  we  love 
those  we  lose,  can  we  altogether  lose  those  we  love?"  — THACKERAY. 


CONTENTS 


MM 

BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 1 

HISTORICAL  PAPERS 

SAMUEL  WARD,  GOVERNOR  OF  RHODE  ISLAND       ...        99 

THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE 178 

THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION 199 

THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES   ....  221 
THE  EPOCHS  OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION        ....      243 
THE  FORMATION  AND  ADOPTION  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  AS  EXPLAINED  IN  MR.  BANCROFT'S  VOL- 
UMES        267 

ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION  AMONG  NATIONS  ....      290 

ITALY  REVISITED 315 

PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

ADDRESS  DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  RHODE  ISLAND  HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY 339 

ADDRESS  AT  A  PUBLIC  MEETING  OF  THE  CITIZENS  OF  PROVI- 
DENCE, CALLED  TO  CONSIDER  THE  ASSAULT  UPON  THE  HON- 

ORABLE  CHARLES  SUMNER,  IN  THE  SENATE-CHAMBER  AT 

WASHINGTON 364 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  RHODE  ISLAND  HOSPITAL  372 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL. 


THE  aim  of  this  memorial  volume  is  to  preserve 
for  the  pupils  and  friends  of  its  subject  some  per- 
manent record  of  an  accomplished  Christian  scholar. 
The  scholarship  which  characterized  and  controlled 
his  career  was  not  that  of  a  recluse,  apart  from  the 
world,  breathing  only  the  "  still  air  of  delightful 
studies."  It  recognized  the  claims  of  society  on  the 
student,  mingled  freely  with  men,  and,  while  draw- 
ing its  life  largely  from  books,  brought  that  life  to 
bear  on  the  welfare  of  the  community  at  many  dif- 
ferent points  and  for  more  than  fifty  years.  It  was 
eminently  an  academic  life,  yet  it  kept  a  steady  and 
observant  eye  on  the  course  of  human  affairs,  and, 
after  completing  a  long  and  distinguished  service 
in  high  academic  positions,  entered  on  a  closing 
period  of  general  but  no  less  efficient  usefulness. 
Though  no  striking  incidents  are  to  be  narrated  in 
the  biographical  sketch,  yet  the  absence  of  these  is 
more  than  compensated  by  the  presence  of  noble 
endeavors  that 

.     .     .     "Wrought 
All  kind  of  service  with  a  noble  ease 
That  graced  the  lowliest  act  in  doing  it." 

The  world  is  now  grown  too  wise  not  to  recognize 


2  MEMORIAL. 

the  sphere  and  the  worth  of  such  lives.  Men  of 
high  endowments  and  contemplative  habits,  who  use 
then-  scholarly  attainments  for  good  ends,  either  of 
education  or  of  practical  beneficence,  are  sure  not 
only  of  a  kindly  but  a  long  remembrance.  The 
work  of  the  teacher  has  assumed  the  greater  impor- 
tance as  our  civilization  has  grown  more  advanced 
and  complex.  Higher  education  is  in  the  forefront 
of  the  best  thought  and  work  to-day,  and  the  teacher 
who  has  given  his  life  to  its  promotion  may  be  sure 
that  a  circle  far  wider  than  that  of  kindred  and 
friends  stands  ready  to  accord  a  just  and  also  a 
grateful  estimate  of  the  ended  toils,  of  the  aspira- 
tions which  have  passed  into  achievement,  of  the 
influence  which  survives  when  memory  has  become 
dim  or  fragmentary. 

William  Gammell  was  the  son  of  the  Rev. 
William  and  Mary  (Slocomb)  Gammell,  and  was 
born  in  Medfield,  Mass.,  February  10,  1812.  His 
grandparents,  John  and  Margaret  (Uran)  Gammell, 
were  of  English  descent,  natives  of  Boston,  Mass., 
and  members  of  the  Federal  Street  Congregational 
Church.  John  Gammell  was  an  ardent  patriot,  early 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  American  independence,  and 
as  one  of  the  "  Boston  Tea  Party  "  aided  in  the  de- 
struction of  tea  in  Boston  Harbor,  1773.  His  son, 
who  seems  early  in  life  to  have  embraced  Baptist 
tenets,  was  educated  for  the  ministry.  His  theo- 
logical training  was  pursued  under  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Williams,  of  Wrentham,  Mass.,  a  somewhat 
noted  teacher  of  theology  in  days  when  there  were 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  3 

no  theological  seminaries ;  when  the  "  schools  of 
the  prophets  "  gathered  in  the  study  of  a  clergyman 
learned  in  the  sacred  tongues  and  in  divinity.  After 
spending  some  time  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Williams, 
William  Gammell,  the  father  of  Professor  Gammell, 
was  ordained  to  the  Christian  ministry  in  1809,  and 
for  a  time  preached  to  the  Baptist  congregation  in 
Bellingham,  Mass.  In  1810  he  became  the  settled 
pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Medfield,  preaching 
on  alternate  Sundays  in  Medfield  and  West  Dedham, 
Mass.,  having  the  pastoral  care  of  both  churches. 
Here  (Medfield)  Professor  Gammell  was  born,  and 
here  his  early  boyhood  was  passed.  In  this  double 
pastorate  his  father  labored  till  1823,  when  he  re- 
moved to  Newport,  R.  I.,  and  became  pastor  of  the 
Second  Baptist  Church.  All  accounts  agree  in 
representing  him  as  a  man  of  decided  mark.  He 
had  rare  gifts  as  a  preacher,  a  commanding  pres- 
ence, a  voice  of  unusual  flexibility  and  power,  an 
eloquent  manner.  His  discourses  were  always  well 
wrought  and  impressive,  so  that  he  soon  rose  to 
eminence  in  his  denomination.  In  1817  he  was 
given  the  honorary  degree  of  A.  M.  by  the  Corpo- 
ration of  Brown  University,  and  was  subsequently, 
in  1820,  chosen  a  member  of  that  body,  as  a  trus- 
tee. Independent  in  forming  his  judgments,  he  was 
fearless  in  avowing  them.  He  had  an  aristocratic 
bearing,  long  remembered  in  the  scenes  of  his  early 
ministry,  which,  however,  did  not  prevent  his  gaining 
a  strong  hold  upon  the  hearts  of  his  parishioners. 
Besides  his  parish  labors  he  interested  himself  in 


4  MEMORIAL. 

matters  of  education,  was  engaged  in  the  movement 
to  establish  the  first  public  school  in  Newport,  and 
was  also  a  frequent  contributor  on  topics  of  public 
interest  to  both  secular  and  religious  journals  of  the 
day. 

For  four  years  he  remained  the  pastor  of  the 
Second  Baptist  Church  in  Newport,  and  died  sud- 
denly of  an  apoplexy,  May  30,  1827.  From  the 
Newport  "  Mercury  "  of  June  2  we  learn  that  "  the 
funeral  services  were  attended  on  the  afternoon  of 
June  1,  at  the  Second  Baptist  Church,  when  an  im- 
pressive and  discriminating  discourse  was  delivered  by 
the  Rev.  President  Wayland,  of  Brown  University." 

It  is  evident  that  Professor  Gammell  inherited 
many  of  his  qualities  and  tastes  from  his  father, 
whom  he  resembled  in  person  and  in  bearing.  The 
interest  in  all  public  affairs,  which  in  later  life 
characterized  him  so  strongly,  had  been  stimulated 
and  educated  by  the  habit  of  conversation  with  his 
father  on  public  questions.  The  independence  with 
which  he  formed  his  opinions  and  the  courage  with 
which  he  maintained  them  were  inherited  gifts. 
From  a  very  early  period  all  his  tastes  were  scholarly. 
His  love  of  books,  his  fondness  for  study,  rendered 
him  indifferent  to  sports  in  which  boyhood  gener- 
ally delights.  It  was  a  foregone  conclusion  that  he 
should  be  liberally  educated.  He  was  prepared  for 
college  at  the  classical  school  in  Newport,  then 
under  the  care  of  the  Hon.  Joseph  Joslin  and  Mr. 
John  Frazer,  and  was  entered  at  Brown  University, 
a  member  of  the  Freshman  class,  in  September, 


WILLIAM   GAMMELL.  5 

1827.  It  is  said  that,  while  attending  the  funeral 
of  his  father,  President  Wayland  noticed  him,  a 
young  lad  sitting  in  the  pew  beside  his  widowed 
mother.  After  the  service  was  over,  and  as  he 
passed  down  the  aisle,  Dr.  Wayland  put  his  hand 
on  his  head,  saying,  "  My  son,  you  shall  never  want 
a  friend  while  I  live."  The  years  that  followed 
Professor  Gammell's  entrance  at  college  furnish 
abundant  proof  that  the  promise  was  never  for- 
gotten, and  its  fulfillment  was  indeed  repaid  by  life- 
long gratitude  and  devotion  on  the  part  of  Professor 
Gammell. 

His  record  as  a  student  in  the  four  years'  course 
of  study  is  that  of  an  uncommonly  faithful  and 
earnest  scholar,  making  the  most  of  his  opportuni- 
ties, and  winning  the  respect  of  his  instructors  as 
well  as  of  his  fellow-students.  One  of  his  class- 
mates, the  Hon.  Francis  W.  Bird,  between  whom  and 
Professor  Gammell,  though  differing  very  widely  in 
their  pursuits  and  mental  habits,  the  relations  of  a 
college  friendship  were  cordially  maintained  to  the 
last,  says  of  him  that  "  he  was  a  close  student, 
quiet,  unassuming,  '  walking  his  round  of  duty ' 
serenely  day  by  day."  Among  his  college  friends, 
none  stood  nearer  to  him  than  Mr.  John  M.  Mackie, 
now  of  Great  Barrington,  Mass.,  and  the  late  Pro- 
fessor Chace.  The  friendship  between  Professors 
Chace  and  Gammell  was  an  ideal  one,  interrupted 
only  by  the  death  of  the  former,  after  fifty-eight 
years  of  unbroken,  almost  daily  communion.  The 
letter  of  Mr.  Mackie,  of  the  class  of  1832,  sub- 


6  MEMORIAL. 

joined,  gives  an  interesting  view  of  the  student-life 
and  accomplishments  of  Professor  Gammell :  — 

GREAT  BARRINGTON,  MASS.,  February  12,  1890. 

In  reply  to  your  request  for  my  recollections  of  William 
Gammell  in  college,  I  can  say  in  a  word  that  I  remember 
him  as  a  model  student.  He  appeared  to  have  come  to 
college  for  the  sole  purpose  of  getting  an  education,  and 
he  made  the  most  of  his  privileges.  As  scholar  he  was  so 
totus,  teres  atque  rotundus  that  it  is  difficult  to  lay  hold 
of  any  specially  salient  points  of  description,  —  all  being 
evenly  and  well  developed.  Like  an  athlete  oiled,  he  was 
hard  to  be  tripped  up  or  taken  at  fault.  He  was  scrupu- 
lously faithful  in  the  performance  of  all  collegiate  tasks 
and  duties  ;  always  punctual,  always  ready,  always  did 
his  best.  Ambitious  of  success  and  rank  in  scholarship, 
he  rarely  tripped,  and  never  failed. 

I  remember  that,  having  resolved  to  perfect  himself  in 
extemporaneous  declamation,  he  made  it  a  rule  never  to 
allow  any  opportunity  of  speaking  in  the  debating  society, 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  to  pass  unimproved.  His 
speeches,  never  too  lengthy,  and  apparently  not  unduly 
labored,  were  uniformly  interesting  and  effective.  They 
held  closely  to  the  point  in  debate,  were  weighted  with 
good  sense,  and  were  adorned  with  a  chaste  flow  of  rhet- 
oric which  never  degenerated  into  youthful  rant  nor  bom- 
bast. Indeed,  his  early  style  of  speaking  and  of  writing 
was  characterized  by  the  same  clearness  of  insight  and 
purity  of  ornament,  the  same  self -restraining  fervor,  the 
same  choice  selection  of  words  and  classical  allusions, 
which  afterwards  threw  so  graceful  a  charm  of  fitness 
and  propriety  over  all  the  compositions  of  his  pen. 

Gammell  in  college  was  emphatically  a  worker.  He 
was  a  steady,  well-regulated  worker,  —  not  putting  off  the 
stated  labor  of  one  hour  to  the  next,  not  trusting  to  the 


WILLIAM   GAMMELL.  7 

chances  of  sudden  inspiration,  not  putting  his  powers  to 
an  unnatural  strain  at  the  home-stretch  of  the  heat.  It 
was  by  a  steady  pace  that  he  reached  first  the  goal.  Curb- 
ing the  sallies  of  youthful  imagination  and  sentiment,  he 
kept  all  the  faculties  of  his  mind  well  in  hand,  and  made 
them  cooperate  harmoniously  in  the  tasks  to  be  accom- 
plished. He  kept  regular  hours  ;  for  relaxation  took  daily 
walks  in  the  country  lying  between  the  two  fair  rivers 
that  now  embrace  the  city  of  Providence ;  was  not  de- 
voted particularly  to  games  of  any  kind,  but  preferred  the 
pleasures  of  conversation  with  cheerful  and  intelligent 
companions.  He  was  himself  always  cheerful  and  freely 
communicative,  —  a  genial  comrade,  a  sensible  counselor 
in  time  of  need,  a  friend  so  fast  and  faithful  that  most  of 
the  intimacies  contracted  by  him  before  graduation  were 
subsequently  kept  up  by  correspondence,  and  lasted  to 
life's  end. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  keep  in  memory  a  college  associate  of 
a  character  so  built  up  throughout  of  seasoned  timber,  not 
a  false-hearted  stick  in  it,  and  which  completely  fulfilled 
the  requirement  of  Cicero,  that  a  young  man  should  have 
in  him  something  of  mature  manhood,  as  old  age  also 
should  retain  something  of  youth. 

JOHN  MILTON  MACKIE. 

Professor  Gammell  was  graduated  from  the  col- 
lege, September,  1831,  with  the  first  honors  of  the 
class,  and  was  assigned  the  valedictory  oration.  The 
theme  on  which  he  spoke  at  Commencement  was 
"  The  Cause  of  a  Diseased  Imagination." 

Immediately  after  his  graduation,  he  sought  and 
obtained  employment  as  a  teacher.  No  calling  in 
life  seems  to  have  been  specially  before  him  dur- 
ing his  college  career.  It  is  evident,  however,  that 


8  MEMORIAL. 

from  the  first  the  vocation  of  the  teacher  attracted 
him.  He  always  reverenced  this  calling.  It  held, 
in  his  view,  equal  rank  with  what  are  called  the 
learned  professions.  He  had  been  inspired  by  Pres- 
ident Wayland  with  such  views,  and  turned  to  it 
naturally  therefore,  when  at  graduation,  he  was 
thrown  upon  his  own  resources.  He  accepted  the 
position  of  principal  in  the  Academy  at  South 
Kingston,  R.  I.  The  eye  of  President  Wayland 
was  upon  him,  and  he  was  called,  in  1832,  to  a 
tutorship  in  Brown  University.  The  catalogue  of 
1834  styles  him  "  Tutor  and  Lecturer  in  the  Latin 
Language  and  Literature."  It  seems  evident  from 
this  that  he  sought  to  make  his  classical  teaching 
something  more  than  a  mere  grammatical  drill.  No 
report  of  what  his  lectures  were  survives  ;  but  it  is 
quite  safe  to  infer,  from  what  he  was  in  other  de- 
partments, that  he  sought  to  unfold  the  literary 
power  of  Latin  authors  read  in  his  classes.  Pro- 
fessor Gammell  had  a  stronger  bent  than  that  for 

O 

classical  study  in  the  direction  of  the  English  lan- 
guage and  its  literature.  That  he  was  successful  in 
his  tutorship  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  it  led  to 
his  subsequent  advancement  upon  lines  more  conge- 
nial to  his  tastes.  In  1835  he  was  promoted  to 
the  Assistant  Professorship  of  Belles-Lettres.  This 
chair  of  oratory  and  belles-lettres  had  been  filled 
by  very  distinguished  men.  The  Hon.  Tristam 
Burges,  LL.  D.,  whose  eloquence  in  Congress  made 
even  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke  sometimes  quail, 
had  held  the  chair  from  1815  to  1828.  Then 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  9 

Professor  William  G.  Goddard,  formerly  Professor 
of  Philosophy  and  Metaphysics,  became  its  incum- 
bent in  1834,  —  holding  it  till  1842.  His  high 
literary  abilities,  his  finished  style,  his  large  know- 
ledge of  literature,  his  unerring  literary  tastes,  were 
the  admiration  of  Professor  Gammell.  More  than 
any  other  man,  Professor  Goddard  may  be  said  to 
have  moulded  Professor  Gammell's  literary  culture. 
Through  life  he  was  wont  to  refer  to  Professor  God- 
dard as  the  model  of  what  a  literary  man  should  be. 
With  him  he  was  associated  as  Assistant  Professor 
of  Belles-Lettres  in  1835.  In  1837  he  was  made 
Professor  of  Rhetoric,  and  on  him  thenceforward, 
owing  to  Professor  Goddard's  feeble  health,  devolved 
the  chief  labor  of  this  department. 

Five  years  had  now  elapsed  since  he  had  entered 
on  his  work  as  tutor  in  the  University.  Academic 
life  was  for  him  the  ideal  life.  It  drew  out  his 
best  powers.  These  were  years  of  hard  labor  and 
of  gratifying  successes.  Along  with  his  associates, 
Professors  Caswell  and  Chace,  he  was  giving  his 
best  efforts  not  only  to  make  his  own  department  of 
instruction  successful,  but  to  build  up  the  college  on 
the  lines  of  development  marked  out  by  Dr.  Way- 
land.  The  following  letter  to  Professor  Chace,  then 
absent  on  scientific  explorations  for  the  college, 
gives  us  a  glimpse  into  his  life,  and  discloses  also  the 
friendship  which  had  been  cemented  between  them. 
Both,  it  may  be  premised,  were  then  occupying 
rooms  in  University  Hall. 


10  MEMORIAL. 

PROVIDENCE,  July  13,  1836. 

MY  DEAR  PROFESSOR,  —  We  have  at  length  reached 
the  middle  of  the  last  week  of  the  term.  It  has  gone 
like  a  dream.  I  expected  a  long  and  lingering  summer 
term,  but  never  since  I  have  lived  here  have  the  hours  of 
study  flown  on  so  rapid  wings  as  this  season. 

You  have  been  away  among  new  scenes  and  unaccus- 
tomed companions,  and  I  doubt  not  days  have  sometimes 
rolled  heavily ;  but  with  us  all,  who  have  been  at  home, 
I  believe  the  summer  has  been  uncommonly  short.  We 
were  conscious  of  its  beginning,  and  now  know  that  it  is 
closing,  and  this  seems  to  us  to  be  nearly  its  entire  history. 
I  have  become  accustomed  to  the  loneliness  which  for  a 
few  days  after  you  left  us  seemed  so  strange  and  oppres- 
sive, and  have  learned  rather  to  exult  in  the  undivided 
empire  of  this  old  hall,  for  after  nine  in  the  evening  I  am 
"monarch  of  all  I  survey,"  with  no  rival  prince  to  set 
limits  to  my  authority ;  and  though  I  have  often  had  my 
royal  authority  less  respected  than  it  deserved  to  be,  yet 
I  owe  it  to  myself  to  say  that  I  have  swayed  the  sceptre 
with  great  mercy  and  forbearance.  .  .  .  We  are  to  have 
the  Junior  exhibition  next  Saturday,  and  I  am  now  in  the 
midst  of  rehearsals  and  all  the  various  preparations  for 
the  occasion.  The  speakers  are  selected  from  the  first 
half  of  the  Junior  class,  —  eleven  in  number.  What  will 
be  the  character  of  the  performance  I  hardly  dare  venture 
to  predict.  You  know  it  is  the  first  appearance  of  my 
Rhetoric ;  and  were  I  to  exhibit  it  myself,  I  verily  believe 
I  should  care  less  than  I  do  now  in  prospect  of  the  ap- 
proaching Saturday.  The  arrangements  for  Commence- 
ment are  all  made,  the  honors  assigned,  and  the  class 
dismissed  and  gone.  It  is  thought  we  are  to  have  an 
uncommonly  good  Commencement.  The  conscientiousness 
that  so  distrusted  us  last  year  has,  I  believe,  wholly  died 
away,  and  the  class  seemed  to  feel  somewhat  as  classes 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  11 

were  wont  to  feel  in  olden  time,  before  the  modern  im- 
provements in  the  moral  sense  had  become  so  common. 
Eight  of  the  Seniors  have  been  elected  and  initiated  into 
the  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  and  five  of  the  Junior  class ;  among 
them  is  your  fellow-townsman,  Harris.  We  are  going  for 
the  future  to  have  an  undergraduate  organization.  The 
society  have  been  again  unable  to  procure  an  orator  from 
abroad,  and  Professor  Goddard  has  kindly  consented,  as 
he  says,  "  to  stand  in  the  gap."  But  seven  of  the  Seniors, 
I  ought  to  have  said,  have  been  initiated ;  the  eighth  is 
with  you. 

.  .  .  Your  room  has  been  the  greater  part  of  the  time 
the  dwelling-place  of  silence,  —  sometimes,  though  seldom, 
sharing  her  domain  for  a  few  hours  in  the  day  with  Pro- 
fessor Goddard.  The  moonlight  and  the  sunlight,  though 
often  flying  to  the  closed  blinds,  have  rarely  been  per- 
mitted to  enter.  Silence  has  made  it  her  chosen  home, 
and  has  reigned  almost  unmolested  throughout  all  your 
apartments. 

The  only  occasion  which  is  at  all  prominent  in  the  future 
before  our  Commencement  is  the  approaching  celebration 
of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  this  city's  settlement. 
It  will  occur  on  the  5th  of  August,  and  be  filled  with  the 
best  ceremonies  and  the  most  impressive  pageantry  our 
ancient  city  can  furnish.  Judge  Pitman  is  to  be  the  ora- 
tor. We  may  expect  the  whole  story  of  Rhode  Island 
history.  Though  the  oration  will  hardly  be  eloquent,  it 
doubtless  will  be  interesting  and  patriotic,  and  I  hope 
calculated  to  wake  the  almost  sleeping  attachments  and 
pride  that  ought  to  swell  and  be  ever  active  in  the  bosom 
of  every  citizen  of  a  State  whose  origin  and  history  have 
been  so  illustrious.  .  .  . 

Farewell,  my  dear  Professor.  I  hope  you  will  have 
gathered  before  you  get  home  not  only  stones  enough  for 
all  the  purposes  of  your  science,  but  the  materials  for  a 


12  MEMORIAL. 

good  long  epic  poem,  which  may  be  rehearsed  through  the 
long  evenings  of  next  winter.     Faculty  are  all  well. 

Yours  truly,  W.  G. 

MK.  GEORGE  I.  CHACE, 
Niagara  Falls. 

Professor  GammelTs  success  as  a  teacher  in  the 
college  was  gained  early.  In  three  years  after  assum- 
ing the  duties  of  his  Professorship  of  Belles-Lettres, 
he  had  made  his  reputation  as  a  finished  and  well- 
read  English  scholar,  and  also  as  an  efficient  and 
esteemed  professor.  He  was  also  a  favorite  in  the 
social  circle  which  then  gathered  round  the  college. 
Life  was  opening  brightly  before  him. 

In  October,  1838,  he  was  married  to  Elizabeth 
Amory,  daughter  of  the  Hon.  John  Whipple.  The 
union  was  but  for  one  short  year.  Her  death, 
November  25,  1839,  followed  quickly  by  that  of 
their  little  child,  plunged  him  into  a  grief  which  for 
a  time  seriously  threatened  his  health.  He  was 
sinking  into  what  seemed  a  settled  gloom  under  the 
pressure  of  his  bereavement,  when  his  friends  insisted 
upon  change  of  scene  with  relaxation  from  inces- 
sant work,  and  readily  secured  for  him  six  months' 
leave  of  absence  from  college  duties.  He  was  of- 
fered the  post  of  private  secretary  to  Commodore 
Morris,  a  friend  of  the  family,  who  at  that  time  was 
expecting  to  be  sent  to  the  Mediterranean.  The 
letter  informing  him  of  the  appointment  bears  date 
of  June  1,  1841,  and  he  was  directed,  in  case  of 
acceptance,  to  report  at  once  at  Washington.  He 
accepted  the  appointment  in  the  expectation  of  the 


WILLIAM   GAMMELL.  13 

voyage  to  the  Mediterranean.  For  some  reason, 
however,  the  original  plan  was  not  carried  out.  In 
the  autumn  Commodore  Morris  was  ordered  to  Bra- 
zil. Professor  Gainmell,  not  caring  to  take  the  lat- 
ter voyage,  resigned  his  appointment,  and  returned 
to  his  college  duties.  For  several  months,  probably 
from  June  to  October,  he  was  on  the  vessel  with 
Commodore  Morris,  and  served  him  as  private  sec- 
retary. They  were,  indeed,  months  fuU  of  interest 
to  him.  He  was  fond  of  dwelling  on  the  new  expe- 
riences of  life  they  gave  him.  He  saw  much  of 
Washington  society,  and  though  deeply  regretting 
the  change  of  destination  for  the  ship  of  Commo- 
dore Morris  which  frustrated  his  plans  of  travel, 
always  remembered  this  episode  in  his  life  with  keen 
enjoyment. 

He  took  up  at  once  his  round  of  college  work, 
and  continued  his  teaching  in  the  chair  of  rhetoric. 
In  the  catalogue  of  1843,  the  course  of  study  in  the 
Junior  year  mentions  also  instruction  in  modern  his- 
tory, during  the  third  term,  by  him.  At  what  time 
these  new  duties  were  added  is  not  precisely  known. 
Probably  they  had  not  been  assigned  him  at  any 
earlier  date.  President  Wayland  was  always  ready 
to  welcome  expansion  of  the  curriculum  along  lines 
of  modern  thought.  Whoever  proposed  the  new 
department,  we  may  be  sure  it  had  Dr.  Wayland's 
earnest  sanction,  and  was  an  inviting  field  of  labor  to 
Professor  Gammell.  His  early  tastes  were  strongly 
historical.  They  had  been  carefully  nurtured  by 
his  father.  They  had  been  indulged  and  cultivated 


14  MEMORIAL. 

by  himself  along  with,  his  collegiate  and  professional 
work.  Admirable  as  were  his  rhetorical  teachings, 
it  is  a  question  whether  from  the  beginning  his  apti- 
tudes were  not  for  historical  studies  as  much  as  for 
belles-lettres.  His  fondness  for  them  grew  stronger 
and  stronger  to  the  end.  Of  what  he  accomplished 
in  this  department,  while  it  was  still  incidental  to 
his  main  work,  President  Angell,  of  Michigan  Uni- 
versity, and  Dr.  Fisher,  of  Yale  University,  speak 
in  their  letters  published  in  this  Memorial.  The 
chair  of  rhetoric,  for  fifteen  years,  from  1835  to 
1850,  absorbed  most  of  his  time  and  strength.  His 
duties  were  manifold  and  exacting.  They  demanded 
from  him  instruction  in  the  principles  of  rhetoric 
and  logic,  Campbell  and  Whately  being  used  as  text- 
books. They  began  with  the  Sophomore  class,  and 
did  not  end  till  the  Commencement  oration  was  writ- 
ten and  fully  rehearsed.  Added  thus  to  the  work 
of  the  class-room,  was  the  supervision  of  all  the  writ- 
ing of  the  college.  This  began  in  the  Sophomore 
and  extended  through  the  Senior  year.  Essays  were 
required  from  the  three  upper  classes  at  frequent 
intervals.  Beside  these,  orations  from  Juniors  and 
Seniors  were  submitted  to  his  inspection  and  de- 
livered before  him.  In  the  class-room,  his  prompt, 
incisive  manner  kept  the  class  closely  attentive.  He 
was  always  dignified,  but  courteous,  and  his  somewhat 
formal  manner  had  no  trace  of  pedantry  about  it. 
He  brought  to  the  chair  of  belles-lettres  a  large 
acquaintance  with  the  best  English  writers.  Mere 
"  curiosities  of  literature,"  writers  of  the  second 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  l 

rank,  had  little  interest  for  him.  He  had  been 
brought  up  in  the  school  of  Addisonian  English. 
He  taught  his  classes  in  the  spirit  of  that  school. 
That  it  may  have  tended  somewhat  too  strongly  in  the 
direction  of  the  coldly  elegant,  and  have  developed 
too  little  flexibility  and  naturalness  of  expression, 
may  be  true.  But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  a  school  of 
rhetorical  training  which  inculcates  reverence  for 
pure,  racy  English  idioms,  for  high  and  just  liter- 
ary taste,  which  abhors  coarseness  and  vulgarity  in 
style,  which  discriminates  between  roughness  mis- 
taken for  strength  and  the  real  strength  of  simplicity 
and  purity,  has  not  much  to  lament  by  way  of  defi- 
ciency, and  has  much  to  praise  by  way  of  attainment. 
As  a  critic  of  college  writing,  he  was  altogether  ad- 
mirable. He  was  ever  ready  to  praise  good  work. 
None  knew  better  than  himself  that  the  true  critic 
is  first  appreciative,  and  then  corrective.  He  was 
quick  to  detect  faults  of  idiom.  He  could  not  en- 
dure flashy  nor  meretricious  ornament.  Above  all, 
he  disliked  obscurity,  fustian,  and  affectation  of  every 
sort.  Minor  as  well  as  major  blemishes  were  care- 
fully noted.  Nothing  seemed  to  escape  that  vigi- 
lant, penetrating  eye.  He  was  kindly  in  his  crit- 
icisms. Only  when  a  student  was  restive  and  dis- 
posed to  defend  his  blunders  was  he  at  all  severe. 
The  sting  of  these  criticisms  lay  in  their  accuracy 
and  justice.  He  could  be  sharp  on  occasion.  His 
favorite  students  felt  the  knife,  as  it  pruned  away 
some  of  the  darlings  of  their  hearts  in  a  mixed 
figure  or  overstrained  expression.  But  it  is  his 


16  MEMORIAL. 

high  praise  that  he  moulded  the  writing  of  the  col- 
lege after  high  ideals.  He  impressed  himself  on 
his  students  to  a  degree  reached  by  few  professors 
of  rhetoric. 

In  his  day  the  modern  professor  of  elocution  was 
unknown  in  most  of  our  colleges.  What  training 
the  students  of  Brown  University  got  in  this  line 
from  1835  to  1850,  they  obtained  from  Professor 
Gammell.  He  never  pretended  to  play  the  orator 
himself.  He  believed  in  certain  cardinal  principles 
of  good  speaking,  clear  enunciation,  sparing  but  ap- 
propriate gesticulation,  and  an  earnestness  strictly 
proportionate  to  the  style  of  thought  presented.  His 
training,  therefore,  was  mainly  the  correction  of  glar- 
ing faults  of  manner  or  intonation.  His  patience 
here  seemed  untiring.  It  was  the  training  of  com- 
mon sense,  aiming  at  no  niceties  of  oratorical  effect. 
His  labors  in  preparing  the  students  for  Junior  and 
Senior  exhibitions  and  for  the  Commencement  ex- 
ercises were  unremitting.  Nothing  slipshod  ever 
passed  his  scrutiny.  If  the  speech  was  not  well 
planned,  if  it  was  lacking  in  careful  finish,  if  the 
subject  needed  different  treatment,  it  must  be  re- 
written, and  sometimes  he  insisted  on  this  to  a  third 
revision.  But  his  pupils  generally  had  the  good 
sense  to  remember  that  if  this  involved  labor  on 
their  part,  so  it  did  on  his.  They  bowed  to  his  de- 
cision, and  went  back  to  their  work  with  the  con- 
viction that  not  a  captious  but  a  discerning  criticism 
was  working  in  their  interests.  There  is  the  less 
need  to  dwell  longer  on  this  part  of  Professor  Gam- 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  17 

mell's  work  as  two  of  his  distinguished  pupils  have 
testified  to  its  value  as  well  as  to  his  general  worth. 
The  Rev.  George  P.  Fisher,  D.  D.,  Professor  of 
Church  History  in  Yale  University,  a  graduate  of 
the  class  of  1847,  thus  characterizes  Professor  Gam- 
mell's  career :  — 

NEW  HAVEN,  March  8,  1890. 

During  the  period  when  I  was  a  student  in  Brown 
University  the  Faculty  was  composed  of  excellent  and 
faithful  men,  to  each  of  whom  belonged  a  marked  indi- 
viduality. Professor  Chace  and  Professor  Gammell  were 
socially  intimate,  and  their  names  were  habitually  coupled 
together  in  the  talk  of  students.  Yet  they  were  quite  un- 
like in  their  intellectual  traits  and  their  types  of  charac- 
ter. Both  were  dissimilar,  each  in  his  own  way,  from  the 
beloved  Caswell,  as  all  differed  widely  in  personal  char- 
acteristics from  President  Wayland,  whose  dominant  per- 
sonality caused  him  to  be  held  in  universal  respect.  That 
admirable  scholar,  the  now  venerable  Professor  Lincoln, 
entered  the  Faculty  as  professor  a  year  after  our  class  was 
admitted  to  college.  Professor  Boise,  who  has  not  for 
many  years  past  been  connected  with  Brown,  then  had 
charge  of  the  instruction  in  Greek.  The  late  Professor 
Frieze,  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  was  our  tutor  in 
Latin  during  the  Freshman  year.  In  this  body  of  teach- 
ers, all  of  whom  were  deserving  of  honor  and  esteem,  Pro- 
fessor Gammell  had  a  distinctive  place,  and  manifested 
qualities  altogether  peculiar  to  himself.  He  struck  the 
students  at  once  as  a  man  of  refined  manners  and  ele- 
gant culture.  It  was  obvious  that  he  set  a  high  value 
on  good  manners,  and  was  impatient  of  all  sorts  of  coarse- 
ness and  viilgarity.  He  expected  his  pupils  to  be  gentle- 
men in  their  deportment  and  language,  and  —  although 


18  MEMORIAL. 

he  said  nothing  about  it  —  they  tacitly  felt  that  he  did 
not  like  to  see  them  slovenly  in  dress.  There  were  tra- 
ditional sayings  to  the  effect  that  his  estimate  of  a  student 
was  modified  by  the  degree  of  his  carefulness  in  this  par- 
ticular. A  keen  and  caustic  critic,  he  was  not  solicitous 
to  conceal  his  disapproval  of  any  violations  of  decorum  or 
offenses  against  good  taste,  whether  they  consisted  in  a 
neglect  of  the  canons  of  polite  intercourse  or  of  the  rules 
of  literary  expression.  He  was  the  Professor  of  Rhetoric, 
and  everybody  felt  that  he  meant  to  discharge  his  function 
resolutely,  whether  men  would  bear  or  forbear.  His  criti- 
cisms were  fair  and  just,  but  the  arrow  generally  hit  the 
mark,  and  his  reputation  as  a  censor  of  rhetorical  faults 
and  follies  caused  his  utterances  to  be  awaited  by  some 
of  the  young  authors  with  a  degree  of  apprehension.  No 
sort  of  affectation,  or  bombast,  or  cant  in  the  choice  of 
phraseology  flourished  in  his  presence.  It  was  evident 
to  all  that  Professor  Gammell's  standards  were  high.  He 
demanded  an  easy  naturalness  in  style,  free  on  the  one 
hand  from  everything  tumid,  and  on  the  other  from  every- 
thing careless  or  coarse.  He  labored  perseveringly  to 
train  his  pupils  in  the  art  of  writing,  sparing  no  pains  in 
the  correction  of  their  juvenile  essays,  and  in  giving  to 
them  personal  suggestions  and  advice.  In  the  depart- 
ment of  rhetoric  and  English  literature,  his  influence 
was  great  upon  the  generations  of  students  who  were 
trained  by  him.  On  the  select  number  who  were  drawn 
into  close  personal  relations  with  him  the  effect  of  his  in- 
struction and  guidance  was  of  course  especially  marked. 
The  acknowledged  literary  excellence  which  distinguished 
the  students  at  Brown  as  a  class  is  the  best  possible 
proof  of  the  capacity  and  fidelity  of  their  instructor.  It 
should  be  added  that  in  the  daily  routine  of  college  work 
Professor  Gammell  was  strictly  conscientious.  He  re- 
quired his  pupils  to  do  their  work  faithfully,  and  never 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  19 

failed  to  exact  of  them,  in  recitations  and  examinations, 
suitable  proofs  that  they  had  rightly  spent  their  time.  In 
my  day,  it  was  customary  for  the  instructors  to  make 
domiciliary  visits  to  the  students'  rooms,  —  if  visits  can  be 
called  domiciliary  which  began  and  ended  with  a  bow  at 
the  door.  The  design  was  to  find  out  if  we  were  at  home 
in  the  prescribed  study-hours.  In  my  Freshman  year,  I 
was  in  Professor  Gammell's  division.  He  made  his  calls 
with  much  regularity,  —  no  officer,  I  believe,  except  Pro- 
fessor Chace,  being  more  exact  in  his  adherence  to  this 
ancient  law. 

Professor  Gammell,  in  addition  to  his  duties  as  Pro- 
fessor of  Rhetoric,  took  up  the  work  of  an  instructor  in 
history.  The  amount  of  time  given  at  first  to  the  study 
was  not  very  large.  We  attended  mainly  to  English  his- 
tory, and  gave  special  attention  to  the  period  of  the  Re- 
bellion and  the  Commonwealth.  In  this  department,  the 
influence  of  Professor  Gammell  was  very  quickening  and 
serviceable.  He  led  us  into  paths  of  investigation  and 
reflection  of  the  highest  interest  and  importance.  I  have 
special  occasion  to  express  an  indebtedness  to  his  kind, 
thoughtful  assistance  in  initiating  me  into  historical 
studies.  One  day  he  invited  me  to  his  room,  and  showed 
to  me  several  volumes  of  manuscript  correspondence  of 
Roger  Williams,  which  had  just  been  added  to  the  collec- 
tions of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society.  He  gave 
to  me  this  correspondence  as  a  theme  for  a  composition, 
and  let  me  come  to  his  room,  from  time  to  time,  to  ex- 
amine it,  and  prepare  for  my  task.  This  incident  will 
illustrate  the  disposition  to  aid  his  pupils  whenever  he 
found  them  receptive. 

I  shall  not  venture  to  speak  at  length  of  Professor 
Gammell's  personal  qualities,  beyond  what  has  been  al- 
ready implied.  His  conversation  was  entertaining,  and 
seasoned  in  some  degree  with  a  certain  caustic  wit,  not 


20  MEMORIAL. 

inconsistent  with  genuine  good-will  and  kindness.  He 
never  forgot  his  pupils.  He  followed  them  after  they 
left  college,  and  took  an  almost  parental  satisfaction  in 
whatever  successes  they  achieved.  Those  who  have  been 
entertained  under  his  roof  will  never  cease  to  remember 
his  hospitality,  and  to  recall  the  proofs  of  his  interest  in 
them  and  of  his  continued  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  his 
former  pupils  generally.  For  myself,  I  cannot  think  of 
Professor  Gammell  without  sincere  respect  and  tender 
recollections  of  his  kindness,  and  gratitude  for  what  I  owe 
to  him. 

Yours  faithfully,  GEORGE  P.  FISHER. 

The  following  estimate  of  Professor  Gammell  from 
President  James  B.  Angell,  LL.  D.,  of  Michigan 
University,  and  who  was  graduated  at  Brown  Uni- 
versity in  the  class  of  1849,  bears  testimony  similar 
to  that  of  Professor  Fisher.  Both  these  gentlemen 
were  favorite  pupils  of  Professor  Gammell.  He  had 
the  deepest  pride  in  their  highly  successful  careers, 
and  none  of  his  students  stood  in  closer  relations  to 
him. 

I  pursued  studies  under  Professor  Gammell  from  the 
beginning  of  my  Sophomore  year  to  the  end  of  my  college 
course.  Two  years  later  I  traveled  in  company  with  him 
through  Italy.  I  was  afterwards  associated  with  him  in 
the  Faculty  of  Brown  University.  Since  I  left  Provi- 
dence I  have  maintained  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
him  through  annual  visits  to  Rhode  Island,  and  through 
a  somewhat  regular  correspondence  with  him  extending 
down  to  the  date  of  his  last  illness.  My  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  his  friendship  is  measured  only  by  the  depth 
of  my  sorrow  at  his  death. 


WILLIAM   GAMMELL.  21 

In  my  college  days  he  taught  rhetoric,  logic,  and  his- 
tory, and  trained  the  students  in  writing  and  speaking. 
He  was  an  efficient  instructor  in  all  these  branches,  though, 
in  accordance  with  the  usage  then  prevalent  in  Brown 
University,  he  held  us  more  closely  to  the  recitation  ver- 
batim of  the  text-book  or  the  lecture  than  we  should  now 
deem  wise.  His  drill  in  writing  was  excellent.  He  in- 
sisted that  the  essay  of  his  pupil  should  have  a  distinct 
plan,  a  beginning,  a  middle,  and  an  end,  a  simple  and 
natural  introduction,  and  —  old  students  will  recall  his 
expression  —  "a  free,  easy,  and  appropriate  conclusion." 
If  we  sometimes  thought  that  he  emphasized  the  impor- 
tance of  the  style  rather  than  of  the  thought,  in  our  com- 
positions, possibly  we  see  now  that  what  we  then  most 
needed  to  learn  was  the  art  of  accurate,  chaste,  and  grace- 
ful expression.  He  was  a  nice  verbal  critic.  If  necessary, 
he  could  embody  his  criticism  in  a  pointed,  perhaps  caus- 
tic expression,  which  was  likely  to  be  remembered.  The 
style  which  he  desired  us  to  cultivate  was  like  that  of  most 
writers  half  a  century  ago,  —  less  incisive  and  direct,  more 
stately  and  artificial,  than  that  which  is  commended  at  the 
present  time.  But  it  was  graceful  and  dignified. 

He  inspired  his  classes  with  high  aspirations  for  excel- 
lence in  writing,  and  with  zeal  for  the  study  of  the  classic 
English  authors.  His  students  took  sides  as  lovers  of  this 
author  or  that,  and  discussed  with  ardor  literary  questions. 
Most  of  them  learned  under  him  to  appreciate  and  to 
cultivate  style  in  writing,  and  to  become  familiar  with  the 
great  masters  of  English  thought.  I  have  heard  many  of 
his  pupils,  even  those  who  had  felt  most  keenly  the  wounds 
inflicted  on  their  complacent  souls  by  his  sharp  criticisms, 
express  in  after-life  their  gratitude  and  sense  of  obliga- 
tion to  him  for  the  service  he  had  rendered  them  by  his 
unsparing  fidelity.  They  were  ready  to  exclaim,  "  Faith- 
ful are  the  wounds  of  a  friend." 


22  MEMORIAL. 

There  was  in  his  manner  in  the  class-room  and  else- 
where a  certain  air  of  dignity  and  high-breeding,  which 
sometimes  seemed  to  students,  with  their  unconventional 
ways,  to  border  on  primness  and  formality,  and  perhaps 
was  occasionally  in  danger  of  falling  into  that  extreme. 
But  it  was  not  without  its  beneficial  effects.  There  was 
something  in  his  bearing,  in  his  neatness  of  dress,  in  his 
elegance  of  language,  that  rebuked  coarseness,  vulgarity, 
and  untidiness  in  a  manner  not  unsalutary  to  young  men 
living  by  themselves  hi  dormitories  and  in  commons  hall, 
when,  secluded  from  general  society,  they  so  easily  fell  into 
habits  of  carelessness  concerning  their  dress,  and  became 
neglectful  of  the  ordinary  courtesies  of  life.  The  fact 
that  he  impressed  them  with  his  ideals  of  demeanor  ex- 
pressed itself  in  the  current  saying  that  no  one  who  ap- 
peared in  his  recitation  room  with  boots  unblacked  could 
expect  a  high  mark  for  his  recitation.  Of  course  there 
was  no  truth  in  this.  But  the  unconscious  influence  of 
the  teacher,  who  was  always  and  everywhere  so  instinc- 
tively regardful  of  the  proprieties  and  courtesies  of  refined 
society,  in  making  students  mindful  of  them,  is  not  to  be 
lightly  valued. 

In  my  time  in  college,  Professor  Gammell's  instruction 
in  history  was  mainly  confined  to  the  constitutional  his- 
tory of  England,  though  he  gave  a  few  lectures  on  the 
history  of  the  United  States.  His  work  was  afterwards 
broadened  in  its  scope.  But  in  all  his  historical  teaching 
he  was  intent  on  making  his  students  observe  and  appre- 
hend the  development  of  constitutional  liberty  and  of  civ- 
ilization. It  was  not  dates  and  facts  by  themselves  that 
he  sought  to  fix  in  their  memory,  but  the  progress  of  the 
great  principles  whose  triumphs  have  secured  human  pro- 
gress. In  his  later  years  he  became  much  interested  in 
some  of  the  problems  of  international  law.  His  special 
historical  reading  had  been  ampler  in  the  fields  of  English 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  23 

and  American  history  than  in  the  history  of  continental 
Europe,  though  he  had  studied  with  care  the  development 
and  the  decline  of  feudalism  in  France  and  Germany. 
The  excellence  of  the  articles  on  historical  and  political 
subjects  which  he  contributed  to  the  "  Providence  Jour- 
nal "  and  to  the  "  New  York  Examiner,"  and  of  the  papers 
which  he  read  before  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society, 
makes  one  regret  that  he  did  not  devote  the  years  fol- 
lowing the  resignation  of  his  professional  chair  to  writing 
some  historical  work. 

But  after  laying  down  the  duties  of  his  professorship 
he  did  not  lose  his  interest  either  in  college  questions  or  in 
historical  and  political  problems.  He  watched  fhe  careers 
of  his  pupils  with  the  deepest  interest,  and  felt  the  great- 
est pride  in  their  successes.  He  was  ever  ready  to  help 
them  by  his  counsels.  He  had  constantly  at  heart  the 
welfare  of  Brown  University.  Of  the  many  letters  I 
have  received  from  him,  I  doubt  if  there  is  one  in  which 
he  does  not  speak  of  that  college  with  earnest  interest  and 
touch  on  some  phase  of  current  discussion  of  college 
problems.  His  conversation  always  led  speedily  to  the 
same  themes.  He  was  conservative  in  his  views  of  college 
policy,  as  in  all  things.  His  last  will  and  testament  gave 
touching  proof  of  his  devotion  to  the  college  and  to  Amer- 
ican history. 

He  cherished  a  strong  pride  in  the  career  of  Ehode 
Island.  Himself  a  biographer  of  the  founder  of  the 
State  and  of  one  of  its  early  governors,  he  was  familiar, 
as  few  men  are,  with  her  history.  While  not  blind  to  her 
mistakes,  he  loved  to  dwell  upon  the  bright  passages  in 
her  record,  and  to  discourse  with  hearty  appreciation  on 
the  strong  men  she  has  reared. 

In  instruction  to  classes,  in  writing  for  the  press,  and 
in  conversation,  he  was  ever  urging  that  educated  men, 
and  especially  rich  men,  should  cultivate  a  deep  interest 


24  MEMORIAL. 

in  public  affairs  and  in  public  institutions.  He  never 
tired  of  emphasizing  the  importance  of  the  nurture  and 
growth  of  civic  virtue.  He  illustrated  his  doctrine  by 
his  own  active  interest  in  the  Rhode  Island  Hospital,  the 
Providence  Athenaeum,  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  So- 
ciety, and  other  institutions,  and  in  public  affairs  in  gen- 
eral. 

Mr.  Gammell  was  fond  of  society.  He  was  a  fluent, 
vivacious,  and  agreeable  talker.  He  was  a  welcome  guest 
at  any  dinner-table.  His  conversation  was  often  racy 
with  sharp  but  not  ill-natured  criticism.  He  was  not 
wanting  in  wit,  and  he  keenly  appreciated  it  in  others. 
He  had  "  the  courage  of  his  convictions,"  and  defended 
his  positions  with  spirit,  but  without  loss  of  temper.  He 
was  a  charming  companion  and  a  most  faithful  friend. 
His  sympathies  were  quick  and  tender.  He  was  a  man 
of  simple,  earnest  Christian  faith,  a  believer  of  the  broad- 
est and  most  catholic  type.  He  was  the  last  survivor  of 
that  group  of  marked  men  who  constituted  the  Faculty 
of  Brown  University  when  he  joined  it.  None  of  them 
served  that  college  with  more  faithful  devotion  than  he. 
With  all  her  wealth  she  has  no  richer  treasure,  no  more 
precious  endowment,  than  the  memory  of  their  lives  and 
characters. 

Yours  very  truly,  JAMES  B.  ANGELL. 

The  years  1843-1850  were  years  of  literary  labor 
outside  the  regular  and  engrossing  academic  work. 
Professor  Gammell  was  asked  to  prepare  two  of  the 
Memoirs  in  the  "  Library  of  American  Biography," 
conducted  by  Jared  Sparks,  then  McLean  Professor 
of  Ancient  and  Modern  History  at  Harvard  Col- 
lege. He  entered  at  once  and  with  zest  into  the 
undertaking,  and  his  Memoir  of  Roger  Williams 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  25 

appeared  in  1845,  in  Vol.  IV.  of  the  "  American 
Biography,"  Second  Series.  His  monograph  is  more 
condensed  than  that  of  a  previous  biographer,  Mr. 
Knowles.  It  is,  however,  no  mere  digest  of  Mr. 
Knowles's  labors.  Professor  Gammell  made  his  own 
investigations,  and  the  result  of  his  work  is  well 
stated  in  an  appropriate  notice  of  the  book  in  the 
"  North  American  Review  :  "  1  — 

"  Mr.  Gammell,  though  he  has  consulted  all  the  works  of 
our  colonial  history  relating  to  his  theme,  has  not  found 
occasion  in  any  important  point  to  vary  from  the  opinions 
expressed  by  his  predecessor.  The  memoir  which  he  has 
prepared,  as  its  position  in  a  series  of  popular  biographies 
required,  is  more  brief  and  more  closely  confined  to  the 
life  of  the  individual.  The  writer  has  shown  more  skill 
in  the  selection  and  arrangement  of  his  materials,  equal 
soundness  of  judgment  in  the  views  of  individual  character 
and  of  colonial  policy,  and  very  commendable  impartiality 
in  the  narration  of  events,  the  history  of  which  has  been 
too  often  distorted  and  colored  by  prejudice  or  malevo- 
lence. The  style  is  remarkably  well  suited  to  a  work  of 
this  kind.  It  is  chaste,  easy,  and  animated,  showing  the 
taste  and  skill  of  an  accomplished  and  accurate  scholar." 

The  Life  of  Governor  Samuel  Ward  was  pub- 
lished in  the  following  year,  1846,  in  Vol.  IX.,  New 
Series,  of  the  "  American  Biography."  The  latter 
volume  cost  him  a  somewhat  extended  research. 
He  examined  the  "  letters  and  private  papers  of 
Governor  Ward,  now  in  the  possession  of  his  de- 
scendants in  the  city  of  New  York ;  also,  the  legis- 

i  Vol.  bciv.  pp.  1-20. 


26  MEMORIAL. 

lative  records  and  the  files  of  ancient  documents  in 
the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State  of  Rhode  Isl- 
and, as  well  as  the  published  memorials  relating  to 
that  period  of  her  colonial  history."  Nothing  which 
he  ever  published  seems  to  have  been  prepared  with 
greater  care.  The  narrative  is  flowing  and  graphic, 
the  salient  points  in  Governor  Ward's  career  are 
brought  into  proper  relief,  the  style  is  clear  and 
concise,  and  while  a  hearty  admiration  for  his  sub- 
ject is  manifest,  his  appreciative  spirit  does  not  sink 
the  historian  in  the  eulogist.  It  is  a  critical  esti- 
mate as  well  as  a  biography.  The  preparation  of 
the  volume  had  one  marked  effect  on  Professor  Gam- 
mell :  it  deepened  his  interest  in  Rhode  Island  his- 
tory, and  made  him  a  more  fervent  admirer  of  Rhode 
Island  institutions.  He  records  his  opinion  in  the 
Preface  "  that  the  services  of  the  colony  of  Rhode 
Island  in  the  Revolution  have  never  yet  been  duly 
chronicled." 

The  writing  of  these  two  volumes  qualified  him 
for  another  and  weightier  task  in  historical  author- 
ship. The  Executive  Committee  of  the  American 
Baptist  Missionary  Union  requested  him  to  write  a 
history  of  American  Baptist  missions.  What  the 
work  involved  is  best  described  in  his  own  words  : 
"  The  subject  relates  to  many  different  countries  and 
races  of  mankind,  and  comprises  the  personal  ad- 
ventures and  philanthropic  labors  of  a  large  number 
of  individuals,  who,  in  the  spirit  of  their  Master  and 
in  obedience  to  His  great  command,  have  toiled  for 
the  extension  of  Christian  truth  among,  their  fellow- 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  27 

men.  From  a  range  of  topics  so  wide  and  varied 
the  author  has  aimed  to  select  the  incidents  and 
scenes  which  may  fairly  represent  the  growth  of 
each  separate  mission,  and  to  form  from  them  a 
series  of  narratives  fitted  to  interest  the  general 
reader.  In  the  execution  of  the  design,  the  most 
difficult  task  has  been  to  blend  particular  facts  with 
general  views,  and  from  the  scattered  letters  of  many 
individuals  to  trace  the  gradual  advancement  of  the 
enterprises  in  which  they  are  engaged."  To  carry 
out  his  plan,  it  was  necessary  to  examine  carefully 
the  journals  of  the  missionaries,  the  published  re- 
ports of  missionary  operations  in  the  "  Missionary 
Magazine,"  also  records  and  papers  in  manuscript 
at  the  Baptist  Missionary  Rooms.  He  consulted 
the  memoirs  of  missionaries  and  works  on  missions 
in  different  countries,  as  also  works  discussing  the 
history  and  condition  of  countries  in  which  the  mis- 
sions had  been  planted.  He  wove  "into  the  nar- 
rative brief  notices  of  such  public  events  as  have 
affected  their  progress  and  success."  Aside  from 
the  general  qualification  for  such  a  work  which  his 
historical  studies  and  writings  had  given  him,  he 
had  a  special  fitness  springing  from  close  studies 
of  the  great  missionary  field.  It  had  been  his  habit 
to  prepare  for  the  Society  of  Missionary  Inquiry  in 
the  college  a  monthly  resume  of  missionary  intelli- 
gence. This  was  given  on  the  evening  of  the  first 
Sunday  in  the  month,  at  the  old  chapel.  Dr.  Way- 
land  was  always  present.  The  students  of  that  day 
will  recall  the  dimly  lighted  room,  and  the  impressive 


28  MEMORIAL. 

prayers  and  addresses  of  Dr.  Wayland,  which  fol- 
lowed Professor  Gammell's  presentation  of  mission- 
ary intelligence  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  Nothing 
ever  kindled  Dr.  Wayland's  enthusiasm  more  than 
the  story  of  missionary  toil  and  sacrifices ;  and  after 
Professor  Gammell  had  read  his  selection  of  well- 
chosen  facts  gathered  from  the  missionary  periodi- 
cals, always  skillfully  grouped  and  lighted  up  by 
explanatory  comments,  Dr.  Wayland  closed  the  ser- 
vice by  one  of  those  off-hand  moving  addresses  in 
which  he  was  so  powerful.  The  same  service  was 
subsequently  repeated  in  the  vestry  of  the  First 
Baptist  Meeting-House.  From  this  wide  survey  of 
missionary  operations,  and  still  more  from  the  deep 
sympathy  with  missionaries  and  their  labors  which 
this  survey  engendered,  Professor  Gammell  had 
gained  a  special  training  for  the  office  of  a  mission- 
ary historian. 

His  "  History  of  American  Baptist  Missions  "  is 
a  model  of  its  kind.  More  than  half  the  book  is 
occupied  in  detailing  the  wonderful  story  of  the 
Burman  missions.  From  these  the  author  passes  to 
missions  in  Siam  and  China ;  then  treats  of  the  mis- 
sion in  Assam,  briefly  describes  that  to  the  Teloo- 
goos,  and,  leaving  the  continent  of  Asia,  details  the 
history  of  the  mission  in  West  Africa.  Not  the 
least  striking  feature  of  the  volume  is  its  concluding 
"portion,  in  which  the  history  of  Baptist  missions  in 
Europe  is  narrated.  Each  of  those  in  Greece,  in 
France,  in  Germany,  and  in  Denmark  is  happily  de- 
scribed. The  book  ends  with  an  account  of  missions 


WILLIAM   GAMMELL.  29 

among  the  Indians  of  North  America.  It  is  a  volume 
of  only  348  octavo  pages  ;  but  so  well  proportioned 
is  the  author's  discussion  of  each  mission  according 
to  its  importance,  so  well  selected  are  the  salient 
points  of  missionary  interest,  dry  and  prolix  details 
are  so  skillfully  avoided,  striking  incidents  and  sig- 
nificant crises  are  so  carefully  seized,  the  style  is  so 
well  suited  to  the  subject,  warmed  at  times  into  a 
glow  of  Christian  enthusiasm,  that  this  History  has 
secured  high  rank  in  the  literature  of  missions.  The 
"  North  American  Review  "  heartily  commended  both 
its  style  and  execution : 1  "In  point  of  style  it  is 
chaste  and  elegant.  It  rejects  all  rhetorical  embel- 
lishments, and  when  the  narrative  is  most  exciting 
its  flow  is  still  calm  and  dispassionate.  .  .  .  Pro- 
fessor Gammell  deserves  our  high  regard  also  for 
the  kindly  spirit  in  which  he  has  wrought  out  this 
monument  to  the  philanthropy  of  his  denomination. 
We  look  in  vain  for  the  language  of  bigotry,  exclu- 
siveness,  or  unkindness.  The  most  generous  notice 
is  uniformly  taken  of  the  missionaries  of  other  sects, 
and  the  ashes  of  buried  controversy  are  in  every 
instance  left  undisturbed." 

The  reorganization  of  the  University  by  President 
Way  land,  and  the  introduction  of  the  "  New  Sys- 
tem," as  it  was  called,  opened  the  way  for  a  change 
of  professorship  to  Professor  Gammell.  His  inter- 
est in  historical  studies  had  been  steadily  growing. 
They  were  to  assume  a  new  importance  and  a  much 
larger  field  in  the  future  course  of  study.  For 

i  Vol.  Ixx.  pp.  57-78. 


30  MEMORIAL. 

fifteen  years  he  had  wrought  laboriously  and  suc- 
cessfully in  the  rhetorical  department.  But  there 
was  of  necessity  a  drudgery  in  correcting  essays  and 
supervising  orations  from  which  he  naturally  de- 
sired release.  He  had  purchased  the  right  to  ex- 
emption from  such  toils.  And  when,  in  1850, 
history  was  constituted  a  distinct  department,  asso- 
ciated with  that  of  political  economy,  he  had  abun- 
dantly shown  his  fitness  for  the  new  position.  Ac- 
cordingly, he  was  transferred  from  the  chair  of 
rhetoric  to  that  of  history  and  political  economy. 

He  was  married  a  second  time,  September  22, 
1851,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Amory,  daughter  of  Mr. 
Robert  H.  Ives,  of  Providence,  and  with  his  bride 
sailed  for  Europe,  where  they  passed  a  year  visiting 
England,  France,  Italy,  and  Switzerland ;  returning 
by  England  and  Scotland  in  August  of  the  year 
following,  in  time  for  the  opening  of  the  college. 
It  was  a  year  of  rest  greatly  needed  by  him,  and  it 
proved  all  that  his  best  friends  hoped.  He  was  in 
Paris  during  the  stirring  times  of  the  autumn  of  1851. 
The  coup  d'etat  took  place  the  day  after  he  left 
the  capital,  the  news  reaching  him  at  the  city  of 
Lyons.  His  interest  in  this  foreign  tour  was  not 
concentrated  on  any  specialties.  It  was  various,  keen 
always,  and  fastening  on  every  aspect  of  foreign 
life,  or  manners,  or  institutions,  or  scenery.1  His 

1  In  1879  Professor  Gammell  revisited  Italy  with  his  family.  On 
his  return,  he  prepared  and  read  before  the  Friday  Evening  Club  the 
paper  Italy  Revisited,  printed  in  this  volume.  That  paper  reveals 
in  an  interesting  manner  his  habits  as  a  traveler. 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  31 

social  gifts,  as  well  as  his  wide  intelligence  and  cul- 
ture, gave  him  ready  access  to  men  of  note,  whose 
acquaintance  he  desired.  Perhaps  the  most  marked 
instance  of  this  was  his  visit  to  Guizot,  who  had 
returned  from  his  exile  in  England,  and  was  then 
living  in  Paris.  For  him  as  a  historical  scholar 
Professor  Gammell  had  great  veneration.  They  dis- 
cussed, in  an  interview  they  had,  the  problems  of  the 
day  in  their  connection  with  mediaeval  history.  He 
was  wont  to  aUude  to  this  conversation  with  Guizot 
with  profound  interest,  and  his  use  of  the  "  History 
of  Civilization  "  as  a  text-book  was  one  fruit  of  the 
discussion.  He  admired  its  method,  sympathized 
with  its  views,  and  grounded  his  classes  well  in  the 
generalizations  expounded  by  Guizot. 

He  resumed  his  duties  in  the  college  immedi- 
ately on  his  return,  and  for  twelve  years  filled 
the  chair  of  history  and  political  economy.  Pro- 
fessor Gammell  made  no  claim  to  knowledge  of 
speculative  philosophy.  He  had  no  fondness  and 
perhaps  no  aptitude  for  metaphysical  studies.  It 
would,  however,  be  a  great  mistake,  as  well  as  an 
injustice,  to  conclude  from  this  that  he  did  not  teach 
the  laws  as  well  as  the  facts  of  history.  His  method 
was  certainly  a  philosophical  one ;  not  fully  devel- 
oped, perhaps,  wanting  in  completeness,  but  still 
proceeding  on  lines  of  broad  and  well-considered 
generalization.  The  estimates  of  his  work  as  a 
historical  teacher  furnished  already  by  Professor 
Fisher  and  President  Angell  are  well  supplemented 
by  the  following  from  Professor  J.  H.  Gilmore,  of 


32  MEMORIAL. 

Rochester  University,1  a  graduate  from  Brown  Uni- 
versity of  the  class  of  1858,  who  was  his  pupil 
when  he  was  devoting  his  whole  time  to  this  de- 
partment :  — 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ROCHESTER, 
ROCHESTER,  N.  Y.,  February  25, 1890. 

Pray  excuse  my  seeming  neglect  in  delaying  to  answer 
your  letters.  It  is  only  seeming,  as  I  have  been  absent 
from  the  city  nearly  all  the  time  since  the  first  one  was 
received,  and,  when  at  home,  have  been  so  busy  that  it 
has  been  impossible  to  attend  to  any  work  that  was  not 
absolutely  imperative. 

Even  now,  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  render  you  much 
service,  but  I  will  give  you,  at  least,  my  impressions  of 
Professor  Gammell ;  and  that  with  the  greater  interest, 
as  I  feel  under  especial  obligations  to  him. 

I  do  not  think  he  was  exceptionally  popular  with  our 
class  (perhaps  it  was  not  altogether  his  fault)  ;  but  while 
my  own  relations  with  Professor  Dunn  and  Professor  An- 
gell  were  more  cordial  than  those  that  subsisted  between 
Professor  Gammell  and  myself,  I  liked  him  exceedingly, 
and  thought,  at  the  time,  that  I  was  getting  more  from 
him  than  from  any  other  professor  in  college.  As  I  look 
back  upon  my  college  course,  I  still  feel  under  peculiar 
obligations  to  my  professor  of  history.  More  time  was 
then  given  to  history  at  Brown  than  to  any  other  study 
excepting  Latin,  Greek,  and  mathematics ;  and  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  course  of  study  in  Professor  GamineH's 
department  was  better  organized  than  those  in  most  of 
the  other  departments.  Certainly,  the  instruction  which  I 
received  from  him  has  stood  me  very  fairly  in  stead  dur- 
ing all  these  years.  But  I  think  I  especially  appreciated 
(I  know  that  I  appreciated  more  than  most  of  my  class 

1  This  University  conferred  on  Professor  Gammell,  in  1859,  the 
honorary  degree  of  LL.  D. 


WILLIAM  G  A  AIM  ELL:  33 

did)  Professor  Gammell's  obiter  dicta,  his  incidental  re- 
marks concerning  men  and  things  of  our  own  day.  He 
was  animated  by  a  sturdy  contempt  for  humbugs  and 
shams ;  and,  as  I  recall  his  teachings,  his  influence  seems 
to  have  been  broadening  and  liberalizing  beyond  that  of 
most  of  my  professors.  Only  yesterday,  after  penning 
(or,  rather,  caligraphing)  the  sentence,  "  And,  often,  back 
of  the  mysterious  editorial  we  there  is  masquerading  some 
callow  stripling,  who  lacks  even  the  rudiments  of  a  decent 
English  education,"  I  thought  to  myself,  That 's  one  of 
my  old  professor's  sentences,  —  as,  indeed,  it  might  well 
have  been,  for  the  thraldom  of  the  press  was  one  of  his 
favorite  themes. 

I  do  not  think  that  Professor  Gammell  was  particularly 
intimate  with  any  of  his  students,  —  perhaps  he  did  not 
care  to  be,  perhaps  they  thought  he  did  not  care  to  be, 
—  but  I  am  certain  that  he  was  profoundly  interested 
in  their  welfare.  Once,  when  I  had  occasion  to  see 
him  about  another  matter,  he  talked  with  me  quite  at 
length  in  regard  to  a  very  bright  young  man,  a  student 
for  the  Christian  ministry,  who  was  not  getting  that  prep- 
aration for  his  life-work  which  he  needed,  because  he 
was  so  eager  for  immediate  work  and  immediate  results. 
"  He  has  no  right  to  neglect  his  opportunities  as  he  does," 
said  Professor  Gammell,  "  but  it  will  not  do  for  me  to  tell 
him  so.  He  would  only  misunderstand  me.  Now,  you 
are  intimate  with  him,  and  religiously  in  sympathy  with 
him,  without  neglecting  your  immediate  duty.  Could  n't 
you  influence  him  for  good  ?  "  As  I  look  back  upon  that 
conversation,  it  seems  in  every  respect  creditable  to  Dr. 
Gammell. 

I  wish,  my  dear  Dr.  Murray,  that  I  could  really  give 
you  something  that  would  be  of  more  value  to  you  than 
these  fragmentary  reminiscences ;  but  such  as  I  have  I 
place  at  your  disposal. 

Very  truly  yours,  J.  H.  GlLMORE. 


34  MEMORIAL. 

The  following  letter  from  Professor  Fisher,  of 
Yale  University,  gracefully  expresses  his  feelings  of 
indebtedness  to  his  esteemed  professor.  Its  occa- 
sion was  the  publication  of  Professor  Fisher's  "  Out- 
lines of  Universal  History." 

NEW  HAVEN,  January  7,  1886. 

MY  DEAR  PROFESSOR  GAMMELL,  —  When  you  first 
led  me  to  begin  historical  studies,  you  little  knew  that  the 
ambitious  and  audacious  spirit  of  youv  pupil  would  one 
day  impel  him  to  the  bold  task  of  writing  a  history  of  the 
world.  Yet  such  is  the  fact ;  and  for  it  I  am  afraid  that 
you  will  have  to  be  held  in  a  large  measure  responsible. 
The  least  thing  that  I  can  do  is  to  carry  the  fruit  of  the 
seed  which  you  sowed  back  to  your  door.  Accordingly,  I 
have  directed  the  publishers  to  send  to  you  a  copy  of  my 
"  Outlines  of  Universal  History." 

Very  sincerely  your  friend  and  pupil, 

GEORGE  P.  FISHER. 
PROFESSOR  GAMMELL. 

In  1864  Professor  Gammell  resigned  the  chair  of 
history  and  political  economy,  to  which  he  had 
been  called  in  1850.  It  was  with  the  deepest  sat- 
isfaction to  him  that  his  pupil  the  Rev.  J.  Lewis 
Diman,  of  the  class  of  1851,  was  appointed  by  the 
Corporation  his  successor,  as  in  1850  his  pupil  the 
Rev.  Robinson  P.  Dunn  had  succeeded  him  in  the 
chair  of  rhetoric.  Seldom  has  it  been  the  fortune 
of  a  successful  professor  to  leave  his  work  in  hands 
so  well  fitted  to  carry  it  on.  Professor  Gammell 
had  now  completed  a  long  and  honorable  career 
of  academic  life.  More  than  a  generation  of  stu- 
dents had  been  graduated  since  he  began  his  work 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  35 

as  tutor  in  the  University.  His  influence  as  a 
scholar  and  as  a  professor  had  steadily  increased. 
He  retired  from  the  chair  of  history  in  the  zenith 
of  his  powers.  He  was  never  more  strongly  inter- 
ested in  the  high  position  he  had  secured  than  when 
he  decided  to  lay  aside  his  professional  duties,  and 
to  find  for  the  remainder  of  his  life  a  sphere  of 
usefulness  outside  the  professor's  chair.  The  fol- 
lowing estimate  of  Professor  GammeH's  services  to 
Brown  University,  from  the  pen  of  Professor  John 
L.  Lincoln,  long  associated  with  him  in  its  Faculty, 
and  who  is  so  widely  beloved  and  deeply  honored,  will 
be  welcomed  by  every  friend  of  his  departed  col- 
league. No  tribute  could  be  more  gracefully  ren- 
dered, and  none  could  be  of  higher  value. 

PROVIDENCE,  March  28,  1890. 

You  have  requested  me  to  give  you,  from  my  recollec- 
tions, some  views  of  the  relations  of  our  late  friend,  Pro- 
fessor Gammell,  to  our  University  as  a  member  of  the 
Faculty  and  a  college  officer.  It  is  with  pleasure  that  I 
comply  with  this  request,  as  such  a  view  takes  me  back  in 
memory  over  the  scenes  and  events  of  many  years  belong- 
ing alike  to  his  and  my  own  professional  life ;  and  yet  it  is 
a  pleasure  mingled  with  sadness,  when  I  remember  that  he 
with  whom  I  was  then  associated  in  college  service,  and  to 
whom  I  was  wont  to  look  up  as  older  in  that  service  than 
myself,  and  who  had  also  been  my  instructor,  is  now  gone 
from  among  us ;  and  that  in  his  death  I  lost  the  last  one 
of  that  company  of  good  men  and  true  who  were  my 
elders  in  the  Faculty,  when  I  entered  it  as  a  tutor  in  1839, 
and  as  a  professor  in  1844. 

Mr.  Gammell  came  into  the  Faculty  as  tutor  in  Sep- 


36  MEMORIAL. 

tember,  1832,  the  beginning  of  the  second  year  after  his 
graduation.  That  was  the  year  in  which  my  class  en- 
tered college ;  and  I  remember  well  the  kindly  greeting 
he  gave  me  on  meeting  me,  on  my  first  college  day,  as 
an  applicant  for  admission  to  the  Freshman  class.  He 
instructed  our  class  the  first  term  in  all  three  of  our 
studies;  in  our  Sophomore  year  he  was  our  instructor 
in  rhetoric,  being  then  Assistant  Professor  of  Belles- 
Lettres,  and  in  1836,  having  been  appointed  Professor 
of  Rhetoric,  he  had  the  sole  charge  of  that  department, 
and  ours  was  the  first  class  which  he  prepared  for  Com- 
mencement. The  duties  of  that  department,  in  class  in- 
struction and  lectures,  and  in  the  conduct  of  the  public 
literary  exercises  of  the  college,  he  discharged,  as  we  all 
know,  with  efficiency  and  skill  until  1851,  in  which  year 
he  assumed  the  professorship,  then  first  established,  of 
History  and  Political  Economy ;  and  the  work  of  that  im- 
portant new  department  he  organized  and  carried  forward 
with  zeal  and  vigor,  and  with  marked  educating  influence, 
till  the  year  1864,  when  he  resigned  his  professorship  and 
retired  from  his  place  in  the  Faculty.  In  these  offices 
and  studies  he  had  thus  been  occupied  as  a  member  of  the 
Faculty  from  1832  to  1864,  —  a  period  of  thirty-two  years. 
These  were  among  the  best  years  of  his  life,  of  his  youth 
and  manhood,  —  from  the  age  of  twenty-one  to  fifty-two. 
They  were  also  years  of  important  changes  and  great 
progress  in  the  history  of  the  University,  in  the  increase 
of  its  resources,  the  widening  of  the  range  of  its  educa- 
tional work,  and  the  adoption  of  larger  views  of  what  con- 
stitutes a  liberal  education.  These  years  cover  a  large 
part  of  Dr.  Wayland's  administration  ;  indeed,  if  we  in- 
clude Professor  Gammell's  undergraduate  life,  he  was  a 
member  of  college  during  the  whole  of  Dr.  Wayland's 
administration,  from  1827  to  1855.  These  years  include 
also  nine  of  the  twelve  years  of  Dr.  Sears's  administra- 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  37 

tion.  During  this  period,  besides  the  professorship  of 
History  and  Political  Economy,  there  were  also  established 
the  professorship  of  Chemistry,  Physiology,  and  Geol- 
ogy, and  that  of  Chemistry  applied  to  the  Arts.  Then, 
too,  in  1850,  came,  after  long-continued  reflection  on  the 
part  of  Dr.  Wayland,  and  much  agitated  discussion  in 
the  Faculty,  the  introduction  of  what  has  been  called  the 
"  New  System  ; "  which,  while  it  embodied  some  measures 
that,  being  of  a  somewhat  radical  nature  and  of  ambig- 
uous benefit,  were  afterwards  changed,  yet  has  justified 
itself  in  the  subsequent  history  of  college  education,  as 
right  and  most  important  in  its  fundamental  ideas,  and 
progressive  in  its  spirit  and  ends.  During  all  this  period 
of  change  and  progress,  Professor  Gammell  rendered  val- 
uable service  as  a  college  officer.  In  him  Dr.  Wayland, 
whom  he  always  loved  to  speak  of  as  his  chief,  found 
a  faithful  adviser  and  an  untiring  coadjutor.  It  was  a 
marked  characteristic  of  Professor  Gammell  that  he  never 
limited  his  thoughts  and  labors  to  his  duties  in  the  lecture- 
room  as  an  instructor.  Outside  and  beyond  this  sphere  of 
professional  work,  he  was  wont  to  keep  a  vigilant  outlook 
over  every  domain  of  college  jurisdiction,  wherever  might 
be  developed  and  cultivated  elements  and  resources  of  the 
welfare  and  the  prosperity  of  the  institution.  He  was  a 
truly  academic  man,  and  his  academic  life  was  identified 
with  the  life  of  Brown,  his  Alma  Mater,  and  the  sphere 
of  his  untiring  filial  devotion,  in  thought  and  effort.  He 
kept  himself  in  touch  with  all  that  went  on  in  its  history, 
rejoicing  in  everything  that  enhanced  its  fame  and  useful- 
ness, and  pained  to  the  quick  by  anything  which  threatened 
to  dim  and  diminish  its  good  name  and  influence.  In  the 
earlier  years  of  his  professorship,  he  prepared  the  Annual 
Catalogues,  either  alone  or  in  union  with  the  President. 
So,  too,  he  early  interested  himself,  in  connection  with 
the  late  Hon.  Theron  Me  teal  f,  in  the  preparation  of  the 


38  MEMORIAL. 

Triennial  Catalogue;  and  after  Judge  Metcalf  had  retired 
from  these  labors,  he  was  the  sole  editor  of  this  Catalogue 
till  the  year  1846.  In  this  way  he  kept  himself  in  com- 
munication with  the  graduates,  and  had  probably  a  wider 
and  more  accurate  knowledge  of  their  places  of  residence 
and  their  occupations  than  any  of  his  colleagues.  Profes- 
sor Gainmell  also  rendered  important  and  long-continued 
services  as  a  member  of  the  Joint  Library  Committee  of 
the  University.  He  came  into  the  Faculty  the  year  after 
measures  had  been  taken  by  Dr.  Wayland  for  raising  a 
Library  Fund,  and  two  years  after  his  accession  this  fund 
had  been  raised,  chiefly  through  the  personal  exertions  of 
Dr.  Wayland  and  Dr.  Caswell.  The  year  1835  was  marked 
by  another  signal  event  in  the  history  of  the  library,  the 
erection  and  dedication  of  Manning  Hall,  and  the  appropri- 
ation of  the  first  floor  of  that  building,  which  was  the  gift 
of  the  Hon.  Nicholas  Brown,  to  the  uses  of  the  library. 
In  1839  the  sum  which  had  been  raised  for  the  fund  had 
increased  at  interest  to  $25,000,  and  the  first  dividend 
from  its  income  was  paid  in  July  of  that  year.  Three 
years  after  this  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  library,  Pro- 
fessor Gammell  was  chosen  from  the  Faculty  a  member  of 
the  Library  Committee ;  and  then  began  a  course  of  faith- 
ful service  in  promoting  the  interests  of  the  library,  which 
continued  till  1859,  —  a  period  of  seventeen  years.  Later, 
in  1871,  after  he  had  been  elected  to  the  Board  of  Fel- 
lows, he  was  chosen  to  represent  the  Corporation  in  the 
Joint  Library  Committee,  and  remained  in  the  commit- 
tee till  1886,  his  whole  period  of  service  having  been 
thirty-three  years.  In  1843,  the  year  after  his  first  en- 
trance into  the  committee,  he  prepared  a  circular,  ad- 
dressed to  the  graduates  and  friends  of  the  college,  invit- 
ing their  cooperation  in  increasing  the  library,  which  was 
printed  and  widely  circulated,  with  immediate  results  of 
important  accessions  of  books  and  pamphlets.  He  also 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  39 

wrote  the  annual  report  of  the  committee  for  that  year, 
a  document  of  substantial  value,  by  its  historical  notices 
and  its  practical  suggestions,  in  securing  the  after  pros- 
perity of  the  library.  For  seven  years  —  from  1852  to 
1859  —  he  was  secretary  of  the  Library  Committee,  and 
most  of  the  annual  reports  during  this  period  were  the 
productions  of  his  pen.  As  was  his  wont  in  all  places  of 
trust  which  he  filled,  he  was  uniformly  regular  and  punc- 
tual in  his  attendance  upon  the  meetings  of  the  committee, 
and  in  union  with  his  colleagues  exercised  a  faithful  super- 
vision in  the  conduct  of  its  affairs,  in  the  selection  and 
purchase  of  books,  and  in  the  planning  and  execution  of 
measures  for  augmenting  its  usefulness.  He  held  opin- 
ions on  the  province  and  functions  of  a  college  library, 
which,  as  the  result  of  much  reflection  and  experience, 
came  to  be  an  abiding  possession  of  his  mind  ;  and  though 
these  opinions  did  not  always  coincide  with  those  of  his 
colleagues  in  their  nature  and  workings,  yet  his  mainte- 
nance of  them  illustrated  the  loyalty  and  fidelity  which 
were  marked  qualities  of  his  character.  Besides  these 
services,  Professor  Gammell  promoted  the  interests  of  the 
college  by  his  articles  for  the  press,  especially  the  "  Provi- 
dence Journal,"  by  which  he  aimed  to  keep  the  college  in 
touch  with  its  alumni  and  friends  and  the  public.  If 
these  articles,  valuable  for  their  information  and  their  lit- 
erary merits,  could  be  gathered  together,  they  would  form 
a  most  useful  and  interesting  contribution  to  the  history 
of  the  University.  In  the  inner  work  of  the  college,  as 
done  by  the  Faculty  and  its  committees,  Professor  Gam- 
mell always  bore  a  prominent  part,  striving  ever,  by  coun- 
sel and  action,  to  maintain  wholesome  discipline  in  the 
government  and  a  high  standard  of  scholarship  and  char- 
acter in  the  students,  and  to  preserve  kindly  and  helpful 
relations  between  the  instructors  and  their  pupils.  On  all 
subjects  which  belonged  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Faculty 


40  MEMORIAL. 

he  reached  opinions  of  his  own  by  reflection  and  experi- 
ence, and  these  he  maintained  with  firmness  and  con- 
stancy ;  and  if  these  seemed  sometimes  to  be  pronounced 
in  a  somewhat  positive  and  exclusive  manner,  yet  they 
were  recognized  by  his  colleagues  as  emanating  from  the 
mind  and  will  of  a  thoughtful  educator  and  a  loyal  son  of 
the  college.  When  Professor  Gammell  resigned  his  pro- 
fessorship, he  carried  with  him,  as  was  expressed  in  the 
resolutions  then  passed,  the  warmest  wishes  of  the  Faculty 
for  his  continued  welfare  and  usefulness,  together  with 
their  hope,  which  was  fully  gratified,  that  his  withdrawal 
would  not  lessen  his  interest  in  the  institution  with  which 
he  had  been  so  long  identified. 

Upon  Professor  GammelTs  resignation,  with  en- 
tire freedom  from  worldly  cares,  two  courses  of  life 
were  open  to  him.  He  could  have  devoted  himself 
to  some  line  of  historical  research,  and  have  left  be- 
hind him  some  elaborate  historical  work.  For  this 
he  was  fitted  by  bent  of  mind  and  by  discipline. 
Not  a  few  there  may  be  who  share  in  the  regret  that 
he  had  not  done  so,  and  thus  have  left  his  own  best 
Memorial  in  some  well-studied  work  on  Rhode  Isl- 
and history,  —  always  to  him  a  fascinating  theme. 
The  other  course  was,  to  give  himself  to  causes  of 
benevolence,  of  learning,  of  public  usefulness.  He 
chose  the  latter.  So  had  Dr.  Wayland  closed  his 
long  and  noble  career.  So  had  Professor  Chace 
decided  to  spend  the  honored  close  of  his  honored 
life.  Professor  Gammell  found  in  the  promotion  of 
wise  and  noble  beneficences,  in  the  devotion  to  the 
University  outside  the  professor's  chair,  the  sphere 
which  was  congenial  to  him  and  in  which  he  did  a 
noble  service. 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  41 

The  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  was  estab- 
lished in  1822.  Only  three  institutions  of  the  kind, 
organized  in  the  United  States,  are  older.  It  has 
always  maintained  a  high  rank  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  noble  purposes  for  which  such  institutions 
exist.  Professor  Gammell's  interest  in  it  dates  from 
an  early  period  in  his  career.  He  was  chosen  a 
member  July  19,  1844.  When  the  society  opened 
its  new  cabinet  on  Waterman  Street,  November  21, 
1844,  he  was  chosen  to  give  the  dedicatory  ad- 
dress. He  surveyed  the  province  of  such  societies 
in  their  general  relation  to  the  work  of  the  historian, 
and  then  dwelt  on  their  more  specific  relation  to  the 
history  of  the  several  States  they  immediately  repre- 
sent. He  used  the  occasion  to  urge  the  claims  of 
Rhode  Island  on  her  historical  students.  "  The  his- 
tory of  no  State  in  the  Union,  we  may  safely  say, 
presents  claims  upon  the  attention  and  study  of  her 
citizens  so  strong  as  does  that  of  Rhode  Island."  l 

He  testified  his  interest  in  the  work  of  the  society 
by  active  participation  in  its  efforts,  contributing  a 
remarkably  interesting  series  of  papers  to  its  ses- 
sions. The  list  here  given  exhibits  his  varied  in- 
terest in  historical  studies.  A  few  of  these  papers 
are  printed  in  this  volume. 

1  When,  some  years  since,  it  became  necessary  to  open  the  grave 
of  William  Blackstone,  Professor  Gammell  was  present,  carefully 
watched  the  removal  of  the  few  remains,  and  wrote  with  great  feeling 
a  notice  of  the  occurrence.  Such  an  event  as  the  opening  of  an  an- 
cient historic  grave  drew  out  his  liveliest  interest.  It  was  to  him  a 
pious  care  and  a  sincere  joy  that  through  the  generosity  of  Black- 
stone's  lineal  descendants  a  suitable  monument  to  Blackstone  was 
reared  on  the  spot. 


42  MEMORIAL. 

ADDRESSES  AND  PAPERS  READ  BEFORE  THE  RHODE 
ISLAND  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY,  BY  THE  LATE  PRO- 
FESSOR WILLIAM  GAMMELL,  LL.  D. 

1.  "  Address  at  the  Opening  of  the  New  Cabinet,"  No- 
vember 21,  1844. 

2.  "  The  Loyalists  of  the  American  Revolution,"  March 
5,  1857. 

3.  "  Progress  of  Rhode  Island  History  since  the  For- 
mation of  this  Society,"  February  21,  1860. 

4.  "  Contributions  History  has  received  from  Certain 
Physical  Sciences,"  October  16,  1877. 

5.  "Asylum  and  Extradition  among  Nations,"  March 
9,1880. 

6.  "  The  Monroe  Doctrine,  its  Original  History,"  Janu- 
ary 26,  1881. 

7.  "  Memorial  Minute  recorded  in  Honor  of  the  Late 
Zachariah  Allen,  LL.  D.,"  March  21,  1882. 

8.  "The  Confederation  Period  of  the  Republic,"  Oc- 
tober 31,  1882. 

9.  "  The  Huguenots  and  the  Edict  of  Nantes,"  Novem- 
ber 17,  1885. 

10.  "  The  Life  and  Services  of  the  Late  John  R.  Bart- 
lett,"  November  2,  1886. 

11.  "  Rhode  Island  refusing  to  adopt  the  Constitution," 
April  17,  1888. 

12.  "  The  Life  of  Rowland  Gibson  Hazard,  LL.  D.," 
July  30,  1888. 

Also  seven  Annual  Addresses :  the  first,  January,  1883, 
the  last  January,  1889. 

When,  in  1882,  the  presidency  of  the  society  be- 
came vacant  by  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Zachariah 
Allen,  Professor  Gammell  was  chosen  to  succeed 
him.  An  honor  also  highly  appreciated  by  him  was 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  43 

his  election,  in  1873,  as  corresponding  member  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  As  President  of 
the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  he  was  called 
on  to  give  an  Annual  Address.  On  these  addresses 
he  seems  to  have  bestowed  great  care.  They  con- 
tained, according  to  well-established  precedents, 
some  survey  of  the  society's  work  during  the  pre- 
vious year.  But  his  addresses  took  a  wider  range. 
He  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  society  important 
lines  of  historical  investigation,  as  yet  not  fully  oc- 
cupied. He  pointed  out  matters  of  local  history, 
sustaining  important  relations  to  the  history  of  the 
country  as  well  as  possessing  an  intrinsic  interest. 
Thus  in  his  first  address,  that  of  1883,  he  calls 
attention  to  the  important  place  held  by  the  his- 
tory of  the  towns  of  Rhode  Island,  referring  es- 
pecially to  the  town  of  Newport,  his  early  and  his 
later  summer  home.  "I  cannot  forbear,"  he  said, 
"  to  express  the^-earnest  hope  that  some  citizen  of 
Newport,  with  suitable  qualifications,  will  soon  be 
induced  to  make  use  of  the  materials  that  may  ere- 
long be  wasted  or  lost,  and  chronicle  in  a  worthy 
manner  the  instructive  and  fascinating  history  of 
a  town  whose  large  agency  in  the  early  formation 
of  the  State  and  in  the  subsequent  development  of 
its  institutions  and  interests  has  never  been  fully 
appreciated  nor  understood."  Specially  he  urged 
that,  among  the  chapters  in  such  a  work,  "  more 
than  one  shall  be  devoted  to  those  military  for- 
tresses which  long  ago  were  constructed  at  the 
mouth  of  Narragansett  Bay,  alike  on  the  islands 


44  MEMORIAL. 

and  on  the  mainland."  He  also  called  attention  to 
the  need  existing  for  a  "  new  history  of  Providence." 
The  address  for  1886  contains  a  spirited  and  elo- 
quent plea  for  some  adequate  history  of  Rhode  Isl- 
and commerce  in  its  earlier  era.  It  is  introduced 
by  a  graphic  picture  of  the  barrier  which  Narra- 
gansett  Bay  interposed  to  any  easy  communica- 
tion between  the  scattered  settlements  of  the  col- 
ony. 

"  Its  shores,  especially  on  the  western  side,  were  covered 
with  dense  forests,  in  which,  here  and  there,  openings  had 
been  made  for  Indian  villages.  It  could  be  traversed  only 
in  pleasant  weather  in  any  season,  and  in  whiter  it  was 
effectually  closed  for  at  least  two  months  by  ice.  When 
we  recall  facts  like  these,  it  becomes  evident  that  the  con- 
ditions of  intercourse  among  the  towns  of  the  colony,  nay, 
the  conditions  of  their  very  existence,  were  somewhat 
harshly  prescribed  and  enforced  by  the  stern  mistress 
whom  they  had  not  yet  learned  either  to  conciliate  or  to 
control. 

"  But  I  must  not  be  thought  to  disparage  our  noble 
bay,  which  has  done  so  much  in  the  making  of  the  State. 
I  am  only  saying  that  it  was  a  somewhat  formidable  ex- 
panse of  water  for  our  early  settlers  to  traverse  in  noth- 
ing but  row-boats  and  canoes.  I  know  full  well  that  it 
was  all  the  time  training  them  to  hardships,  to  self-re- 
liance in  dangers,  to  all  the  heroic  qualities  which  were 
needed  to  prepare  them  for  a  subsequent  stage  in  their 
social  progress.  The  settlements,  once  united,  became 
prosperous  and  strong.  The  sea  was  still  around  them 
on  every  side,  but  they  had  now  learned  to  adapt  them- 
selves to  its  varying  moods,  and  to  make  use  of  its  forces 
for  purposes  of  their  own.  Industry  had  greatly  increased 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  45 

their  resources.  The  little  boats  which  necessity  had 
taught  them  to  build  were  soon  supplanted  by  sloops, 
shallops,  and  snows,  by  brigantines  and  by  ships ;  and 
these  they  built  in  great  numbers,  not  only  for  them- 
selves, but  also  for  neighboring  colonies.  An  acti\7e 
trade  sprang  up,  not  only  with  Boston,  New  London, 
New  Haven,  and  Manhattan,  but  also  with  Barbadoes 
and  the  Spanish  West  India  Islands.  The  struggle  for 
existence  was  over,  and  the  bay  was  no  longer  the  dicta- 
tor of  their  movements,  but  the  willing  servant  of  their 
interests.  The  forests  on  its  shores  were  fast  disappear- 
ing, its  depths  and  shallows  had  been  ascertained,  and  its 
harbors  were  inviting  the  commerce  of  Europe.  I  hope 
that  before  it  is  too  late  some  worthy  history  of  the  era 
of  Rhode  Island  commerce  will  be  written.  Should  it 
be  written  aright,  more  than  any  other  chapter  in  the  an- 
nals of  the  State  it  will  show  how  important  was  the 
agency  of  the  bay,  in  all  its  length  and  breadth,  in  pro- 
ducing some  of  the  noblest  qualities  in  the  character  of 
the  people.  It  enabled  them  to  become  a  colony,  in  a 
large  degree,  of  sailors  and  seafarers,  of  ship-builders  and 
merchants.  So  great  was  the  commerce  of  the  colony  be- 
fore the  troubles  with  England  began  that  Newport  was 
the  rival  of  Boston  as  a  port  for  foreign  trade.  This 
trade  had  also  become  large  in  Providence  and  at  length 
in  Bristol,  while  ships  were  built  at  Warren,  at  Wickford, 
and  at  East  Greenwich,  and  the  whole  surface  of  our 
Rhode  Island  waters  glistened  with  coasters  from  every 
part  of  New  England.  In  the  wars  between  England 
and  France  our  sailors  had  been  largely  engaged  in  naval 
service  and  in  privateering,  and  had  become  accustomed 
to  those  deeds  of  daring,  which  long  lingered  in  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  colony.  It  was  the  spirit  thus  created  and 
kept  alive  that  in  later  days  prompted  the  burning  of  the 
Gaspee,  that  produced  Abraham  Whipple  for  the  conti- 


46  MEMORIAL. 

nental  navy  and  prepared  the  way  for  Commodore  Perry 
and  his  Rhode  Island  companions  at  Lake  Erie." 

Professor  GammelTs  services,  first  as  member  and 
then  as  President  of  the  Historical  Society,  are  fit- 
tingly described  in  the  appended  paper  from  Gen- 
eral Horatio  Rogers,  his  successor  in  the  office  of 
President :  — 

"  Professor  GammelTs  connection  with  this  Society  ex- 
tended over  a  term  of  forty-five  years,  and  at  his  death 
but  two  persons  remained  who  had  been  members  of  it 
longer  than  he.  In  April,  1880,  he  was  elected  one  of  its 
Vice-Presidents,  and  twenty-seven  months  later  he  suc- 
ceeded the  Hon.  Zachariah  Allen  as  President,  a  position 
he  continued  to  hold  during  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

"  For  nearly  threescore  years  and  ten  Professor  Gaminell 
lived  in  Rhode  Island,  and,  though  not  a  native  of  the 
State,  few  within  its  limits  have  surpassed  him  in  famil- 
iarity with  its  history  or  in  earnestness  of  zeal  in  its  de- 
fense ;  and  it  is  to  be  noted  that  during  the  sixty-eight 
years  of  the  Society's  existence  he  was  the  only  one  to 
attain  to  the  presidency  who  was  not  a  native-born  Rhode 
Islander.  Among  his  early  services  to  the  Society  was 
delivering  the  address  at  the  opening  of  its  cabinet  in 
1844,  and  a  few  of  the  eloquent  sentences  uttered  by  him 
on  that  occasion  will  afford  fitting  illustration  of  his  ap- 
preciation of  the  spirit  of  Rhode  Island  history. 

"  In  referring  to  the  exclusion  of  Rhode  Island  from  the 
New  England  Confederacy,  after  inquiring  into  the  mo- 
tives that  prompted  such  action,  he  said  :  '  Whichever  of 
these  may  have  been  the  motive,  the  act  itself  bespeaks  a 
dark  and  malignant  bigotry,  which  cannot  be  veiled,  and 
for  which  it  is  vain  to  apologize,  —  a  bigotry  which,  indeed, 
need  not  be  dwelt  upon,  amid  the  general  blaze  of  Puritan 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  47 

virtues,  but  which  we  may  well  be  proud  to  think  has  left 
no  trace  of  its  existence  in  the  history  of  the  character  of 
Rhode  Island.  How  different  from  all  this  is  the  spirit 
which  characterized  her  legislation,  even  at  the  same 
gloomy  periods  of  New  England  history  !  In  turning  to 
consider  it,  we  seem  to  have  advanced  a  whole  age  in  the 
progress  of  civil  and  intellectual  freedom.'  Again,  in 
speaking  of  the  literature  of  New  England  and  the  mis- 
representations of  the  early  annalists  of  Massachusetts 
and  Plymouth,  he  used  these  words :  '  Many  of  these  mis- 
representations have  been  corrected  by  subsequent  writers, 
in  the  same  States  from  which  they  emanated,  and  the 
fame  of  Rhode  Island  has  been  brightened  by  their  la- 
bors. But  she  still  appeals  to  her  own  sons  for  a  fuller 
vindication ;  she  claims  it  for  the  lessons  she  has  taught 
them,  for  the  inheritance  of  freedom  she  has  transmitted 
to  them.  From  these  eminences  in  her  social  progress,  to 
which  she  has  attained,  she  points  us  back  to  the  scattered 
graves  of  her  original  Planters,  and  demands  of  us  that 
we  build  monuments  to  their  memory,  —  that  we  guard 
their  fame,  and  transmit  their  principles,  undisguised  and 
unperverted,  in  the  imperishable  records  of  history.' 

"  Professor  Gammell  sturdily  defended  his  adopted  State 
against  attacks  from  without,  but  he  was  extremely  pro- 
nounced as  to  any  of  her  history  that  did  not  command 
his  own  approbation.  He  was  scathing  in  his  denuncia- 
tion of  those  that  caused  Rhode  Island  to  delay  her  adop- 
tion of  the  Federal  Constitution ;  and  though  it  would 
seem  that  the  lapse  of  a  century  should,  to  the  impartial 
historian,  have  lightened  some  of  the  shadows  of  that 
event  by  enabling  him  to  look  calmly  through  the  parti- 
sanship of  one  of  the  most  bitter  periods  in  the  annals  of 
Rhode  Island,  to  the  real  moving  causes  beyond,  yet  Pro- 
fessor Gammell  never  beheld  that  light,  and  could  award 
no  judgment  to  the  country  party  of  a  hundred  years  ago 


48  MEMORIAL. 

but  a  condemnation  that  admitted  neither  extenuation  nor 
qualification. 

"  Two  of  his  published  works  —  the  *  Life  of  Roger 
Williams'  and  the  'Biography  of  Governor  Samuel 
Ward'  —  were  essentially  Rhode  Island  books,  and  the 
numerous  papers  he  read  before  the  Society,  and  many 
of  his  printed  articles,  especially  in  the  '  Providence  Jour- 
nal,' were  upon  subjects  germane  to  Rhode  Island  history. 
His  polished  periods  were  highly  attractive,  and  his  ele- 
gant English  invested  every  subject  he  treated  with  a 
charm  not  easily  resisted.  The  announcement  that  he  was 
to  read  a  paper  never  failed  to  draw  a  numerous  audience, 
and  none  ever  regretted  going  to  hear  him.  The  scope  of 
his  knowledge  and  his  ready  adaptation  of  it  to  practical 
use  were  amply  illustrated  by  the  remarks  with  which  he 
invariably  favored  the  Society  after  the  reading  of  papers 
before  it;  and,  as  the  subjects  of  those  papers  were  ex- 
ceedingly diverse,  his  intellectual  stores  must  have  been 
ample  to  permit  such  drafts  at  sight  upon  them. 

"  Formerly  it  was  the  practice  of  the  librarian  and  cabi- 
net keeper  of  the  northern  department  to  present  a  report 
at  the  annual  meetings  of  the  Society ;  but  in  1880  Presi- 
dent Allen  deviated  from  former  usage,  and  delivered  an 
address  in  substitution  of  such  report,  a  course  he  pursued 
the  succeeding  year.  President  Gammell  in  this  respect 
followed  the  precedents  of  his  immediate  predecessor,  and 
his  annual  addresses  were  always  looked  forward  to  with 
interest  by  the  whole  Society.  Especially  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  memorial  minutes  Professor  Gammell  had  no 
superior,  as  the  proceedings  of  the  Society  abundantly 
prove,  and  those  upon  his  predecessors  in  office,  the  Hon. 
Samuel  Greene  Arnold  and  the  Hon.  Zachariah  Allen,  as 
well  as  upon  the  Hon.  Elisha  R.  Potter  and  others,  are 
models  in  this  department  of  literature. 

"  Professor  Gammell  discharged  all  the  duties  of  Presi- 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  49 

dent  of  the  Society  with  scrupulous  fidelity.  Regular  and 
prompt  in  his  attendance  at  the  meetings,  diligent  in  look- 
ing after  the  advisory  and  supervisory  functions  of  the 
office,  he  spared  no  pains  to  advance  the  well-being  of  the 
Society  under  his  charge,  and  he  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  his  efforts  thoroughly  appreciated  and  bearing  good 
fruit  in  the  wide  interest  excited  and  in  the  general  ex- 
pansion of  the  usefulness  of  the  institution.  He  presided 
at  the  meetings  with  great  dignity.  Naturally  a  lover  of 
order  and  decorum,  he  conducted  affairs  with  the  gravest 
propriety,  and  he  regarded  with  disfavor  the  introduction 
of  business  that  had  not  first  been  submitted  to  him  and 
received  his  approval. 

"  The  Rev.  Edwin  M.  Stone,  a  former  librarian  of  the 
Society,  informed  us,  in  1872,  in  surveying  the  half  cen- 
tury of  the  Society's  life,  that  the  Rhode  Island  Historical 
Society  '  was  the  first  historical  society  to  erect  and  own 
a  suitable  building  for  the  reception  and  preservation  of 
its  collections.'  Professor  Gammell,  as  President,  took 
great  interest  in  having  the  Society  adequately  accommo- 
dated, and  during  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  was  very 
active  in  procuring  the  means  for  enlarging  the  building, 
which  had  become  too  contracted  for  the  growing  needs 
of  the  institution.  Through  his  own  personal  efforts  a 
sum  exceeding  ten  thousand  dollars  was  added  to  the 
building  fund,  one  thousand  of  which  he  contributed  from 
his  own  purse.  Though  he  did  not  live  to  see  the  addi- 
tion commenced,  yet  the  enlarged  and  completed  structure 
will  constitute  a  monument  to  his  zeal  and  interest  in  the 
Society. 

"The  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  has  been  fortu- 
nate in  its  past  Presidents.  Their  fame  has  exalted  the 
official  position  into  one  of  honor,  and  their  contributions 
to  the  history  of  Rhode  Island  have  elevated  the  character 
of  the  State)' 


50  MEMORIAL. 

MINUTE 

ADOPTED  BY   THE  RHODE  I8LAXD  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  AT  A  SPECIAL 
MEETING   HELD   APRIL  9,    1889. 

The  Society  performs  a  painful  duty  in  placing  upon 
record  the  decease  of  its  President,  William  Gammell, 
LL.  D.,  which  occurred  on  the  3d  instant.  He  has  been 
a  member  of  the  Society  since  July  19,  1844,  and  its 
President  for  the  last  seven  years.  Besides  the  official 
addresses  with  which  he  has  closed  each  of  these  years, 
he  has  read  thirteen  papers  at  different  meetings,  proba- 
bly a  larger  contribution  than  any  single  member  has  ever 
made. 

For  such  work  he  was  well  qualified.  Though  not  a 
native  of  Rhode  Island,  he  had  lived  here  from  his  boy- 
hood, had  thoroughly  acquainted  himself  with  the  history 
of  the  State,  and  appreciated,  while  he  criticised,  its  foun- 
ders, its  principles,  and  its  institutions. 

The  study  of  history,  the  teaching  of  history,  had  oc- 
cupied the  ripest  and  most  vigorous  period  of  his  academic 
life.  He  was  more  than  a  mere  professor  of  history.  He 
had  the  historic  temper,  the  historic  imagination,  the  con- 
structive power,  which  enabled  him  to  enter  into  and  re- 
produce the  events  and  the  periods  which  interested  him. 
He  had  facility  in  digesting  materials,  which  in  history 
are  often  rather  indigestible,  and  working  them  into  clear 
and  continuous  narrative.  He  rose  readily  from  facts  to 
principles,  and  generalized  within  the  safe  limits  of  induc- 
tion without  wandering  into  regions  of  speculation  and 
vagary.  His  style  was  lucid,  polished,  elevated,  correct 
without  coldness  and  elegant  without  ostentation.  The 
"  Life  of  Roger  Williams "  and  the  "  Life  of  Samuel 
Ward  "  in  Mr.  Sparks's  "  Library  of  American  Biogra- 
phy," and  the  "  History  of  American  Baptist  Missions  " 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  51 

are  the  more  considerable  works  of  his  pen.  The  minor 
writings  which  came  from  his  busy  hand  would  probably 
make  other  volumes  of  equal  or  larger  amount. 

The  Society  has  occasion  to  remember  not  only  his  lit- 
erary contributions  and  his  historical  work,  but  also  the 
dignity  and  courtesy  with  which  he  presided  over  its  meet- 
ings, the  interest  he  has  taken  in  whatever  concerned  its 
usefulness  and  its  progress,  but  especially  the  successful 
attempt  he  made  to  secure  a  large  subscription  for  the  en- 
largement of  its  building,  which  was  almost  the  last  labor 
of  his  life. 

Beyond  all  this,  it  takes  pleasure  and  a  certain  pride  in 
remembering  the  course  of  his  long  and  honorable  life ;  all 
he  was  as  a  citizen,  a  scholar,  a  teacher,  a  man,  a  Chris- 
tian ;  his  fidelity  in  all  trusts,  his  devotion  to  the  highest 
interests,  the  good  name  he  has  left  behind. 

At  the  annual  Commencement  in  1870,  Professor 
Gammell  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Corporation 
of  Brown  University,  and  took  his  seat  in  the  Board 
of  Fellows.  No  man  understood  better  than  he  the 
work  and  the  wants  of  the  institution.  He  had 
watched  its  growth  from  the  time  he  entered  as  a 
student,  in  the  first  year  of  Dr.  Way  land's  presi- 
dency. He  had  labored  successfully  in  two  promi- 
nent departments  of  instruction.  He  had  put  his 
best  strength  into  its  development.  It  had  become 
a  part  and  a  large  part  of  his  life.  It  was  bound 
to  him  by  ties  of  close  association  with  his  honored 
chief,  Dr.  Wayland ;  with  his  endeared  friends,  Pro- 
fessors Caswell  and  Chace,  now  among  the  departed, 
and  Professor  Lincoln,  among  the  living.  He  had 
walked  under  the  shadow  of  its  elms  for  forty  years. 


52  MEMORIAL. 

He  had  seen  all  its  buildings  reared  save  the  vener- 
able University  Hall  and  Hope  College.  He  brought 
to  the  new  post  of  duty  the  most  active  and  sacred 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  college.  Nothing  but 
absence  from  the  country  ever  prevented  his  at- 
tendance at  the  meetings  of  the  Corporation.  In- 
deed, his  last  earthly  service  was  rendered  at  the 
meeting,  March  20,  1889,  when  President  Robinson 
laid  down  his  office.  On  that  occasion  he  made 
the  following  fitting  address,  an  abstract  of  which 
is  here  given,  as  reported  by  Dr.  Lincoln  Way- 
land  :  — 

"  I  can  but  recall  at  this  time  the  honorable  and  suc- 
cessful manner  in  which  President  Robinson  has  dis- 
charged the  duties  of  his  office  for  the  seventeen  years  of 
his  incumbency.  Any  one  who  enters  the  college  yard 
will  notice  the  great  changes  and  the  marked  improve- 
ments which  have  been  made  within  that  time.  The 
grounds,  which  were  plain  and  unadorned,  have  become 
a  beauty  and  a  delight.  The  number  of  new  buildings 
and  the  important  changes  are  without  precedent  in  the 
history  of  the  college.  The  John  Carter  Brown  Library 
Building  has  been  erected  ;  also  the  Slater  Dormitory,  a 
building  suitable  for  the  residence  of  students  ;  and  Sayles 
Memorial  Hall,  the  most  beautiful  and  most  costly  build- 
ing on  the  grounds.  Also  this  ancient  building,  Univer- 
sity Hall,  has  been  renovated  and  made  as  good  as  any 
building  connected  with  the  college.  The  Metcalf  estate, 
of  very  great  value,  and  a  lot  on  George  Street,  of  great 
prospective  importance,  have  been  added  to  the  college 
property. 

"  The  funds  of  the  University,  which  in  1872  were 
$552,430,  were  in  1888  $960,411,  not  including  the  gift 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  53 

of  Mr.  Duncan,  $20,000,  and  a  more  recent  gift  of  $20,000, 
and  other  gifts,  which  would  make  the  total  about  $1,018,- 
000.  The  endowment  has  been  very  nearly  doubled  [not 
counting  the  Lyman  bequest,  from  which  $60,000  or 
$70,000  will  be  realized].  These  gifts  have  come  very 
largely  from  the  community  in  which  the  college  is 
located. 

"  For  this  prosperity  we  are  greatly  indebted  to  the 
judgment,  the  fidelity,  the  ability,  and  the  diligence  of 
President  Robinson.  During  these  seventeen  years,  he 
has  never  been  absent  from  a  college  duty,  from  a  recita- 
tion, or  from  a  chapel  exercise,  except  when  called  away 
by  public  duties.  This  fact  indicates  at  once  his  vigor 
of  constitution  and  his  fidelity  to  his  duties.  How  few 
professional  men  have  a  similar  record  ! 

"  Of  his  instruction,  I  may  speak  with  confidence,  hav- 
ing had  two  sons  under  his  teaching,  and  it  having  been 
my  duty  in  various  ways  to  know  the  internal  condition 
of  the  college.  The  instruction  has  been  of  a  very  high 
order.  He  has  done  much  to  raise  its  standard ;  he 
has  restored  largely  the  spirit  of  the  training  of  my  old 
teacher,  President  Wayland,  which  had  waned  somewhat 
during  the  intervening  period.  I  consider  this  a  fair 
statement  of  the  results  of  Dr.  Robinson's  labors.  He  is 
entitled  to  high  praise  for  these  services. 

"  He  has  now  left  the  position  at  a  more  advanced  age 
than  any  of  his  predecessors  had  attained  while  in  office. 
I  cannot  say  that  this  step  is  unwise  ;  it  is  surely  better 
to  lay  down  the  office  while  one  is  in  full  intellectual 
vigor  than  to  wait  till  a  failure  makes  the  step  necessary. 
We  do  not  to  -  day  part  with  President  Robinson ;  and 
until  we  do  so,  we  may  defer  such  expressions  as  will  be 
at  that  time  appropriate." 

How  great  was  the  value  of  the  counsels  which  he 


54  MEMORIAL. 

brought  to  the  maintenance  of  the  high  standards 
of  the  past,  is  better  told  by  those  who  sat  with  him 
in  the  Corporation.  He  always  had  the  courage  of 
his  opinions,  never  feared  to  be  in  a  minority,  and 
as  a  venerable  member  of  the  Board  said  recently, 
always  "  went  for  high  things."  When  he  died,  it 
was  found  that  he  had  remembered  the  University 
by  a  gift  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  to  be  used  in  pro- 
moting the  interests  of  historical  study  by  devoting 
its  annual  income  to  "  the  purchase  of  books  relat- 
ing to  the  history  of  the  United  States."  But  the 
following  estimate  of  his  services,  by  the  Rev.  E.  G. 
Robinson,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  ex-President,  sets  forth 
the  nature  and  extent  of  those  services  in  impres- 
sive form  :  — 

"  Professor  Gammell  had  resigned  his  professorship, 
and  was  already  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Fellows,  when 
I  entered  on  my  duties  at  Brown  University,  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1872.  I  had  known  him  as  professor  of  rhetoric, 
during  my  undergraduate  days,  and  had  learned  to  hold 
at  a  high  estimate  the  value  of  his  instruction.  In  after 
years,  our  relations,  though  not  intimate,  were  always  cor- 
dial, and  my  editorial  duties  had  given  me  frequent  occa- 
sion to  notice  his  skill  as  a  writer,  his  wisdom  as  a  critic, 
and  his  sound  judgment  and  high  character  as  a  man. 
On  my  coming  to  the  University,  he  was  frank  enough  to 
tell  me  that  he  had  preferred  for  the  place  to  which  I 
had  been  called  his  friend  and  long-time  colleague,  the 
late  Professor  George  Ide  Chace,  LL.  D.,  a  preference 
which  I  fully  appreciated  as  natural,  as  just  and  eminently 
fitting ;  but  he  assured  me,  that  for  all  the  good  offices 
and  hearty  support  of  which  he  was  capable  I  might  con- 
fidently rely  on  him.  And  most  faithfully  were  his  words 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  55 

fulfilled.  During  the  seventeen  years  through  which  we 
worked  together,  no  member  of  the  Corporation  was  more 
punctual  in  the  performance  of  his  duties,  or  more  ready 
for  any  reasonable  and  useful  service,  however  laborious 
it  might  be. 

"  Professor  Gammell,  from  his  long  connection  with  the 
University,  first  as  a  student,  then  as  a  tutor,  and  after- 
wards as  a  professor  in  different  departments,  had  come 
to  know  more  of  the  last  sixty  years  of  its  history,  of  its 
needs  and  its  difficulties  and  its  possibilities,  than  any 
other  member  of  the  Corporation.  His  care  for  the  best 
interests  of  the  University,  founded  on  long  experience 
and  broad  knowledge,  was  always  preeminently  intelli- 
gent, and  it  was  also  conspicuously  unselfish.  Differ  as 
he  might  from  others  in  his  judgment  of  given  measures, 
no  one  ever  failed  to  recognize  his  disinterestedness. 
Thoroughly  appreciating  what  the  University  had  done 
for  himself  and  others  as  students,  and  for  the  community 
in  which  it  was  placed,  he  was  only  intent  on  such  meas- 
ures as  would  strengthen  and  widen  its  efficiency  for  good. 
And  so  often  was  the  wisdom  of  his  judgment  vindicated 
in  the  issue  that  his  influence  in  the  Corporation  was  never 
so  great  as  in  the  last  years  of  his  life. 

"  During  my  connection  with  the  University  a  variety 
of  changes  in  its  internal  arrangements  seemed  to  be  im- 
peratively necessary,  —  changes  which  the  charter  of  the 
University  required  should  first  be  sanctioned  by  the  Fel- 
lows, and  afterwards  approved  by  the  whole  Corporation. 
To  no  one  of  the  Fellows  could  I  look  as  to  Professor 
Gammell,  with  assurance  that  the  necessity  of  the  changes 
would  be  so  fully  understood,  and  when  understood,  be 
approved.  One  of  the  pleasantest  of  the  recollections  of 
my  official  connection  with  the  University  is  that  of  the 
readiness,  the  interest,  and  the  broad  intelligence  with 
which  he  entered  into  a  discussion  of  whatever  promised 


56  MEMORIAL. 

an  improvement  in  college  work.  And  very  few  men,  I 
think,  were  ever  better  judges  than  he  of  what  constitutes 
good  work  in  a  college.  The  disciplinary  effect  of  various 
departments  of  study,  alike  in  the  development  of  intel- 
lect and  in  the  cultivation  of  taste,  had  been  carefully  ob- 
served by  him  through  a  long  series  of  years,  so  that  his 
theory  of  education  rested  not  merely  on  a  priori  princi- 
ples, but  also  on  a  basis  of  carefully  collated  facts. 

"  The  tastes  and  acquisitions  of  Professor  Gammell 
were  in  the  lines  of  English  literature  and  history  rather 
than  of  science  ;  yet  he  never  underestimated  the  value  of 
science  as  a  factor  in  a  liberal  education,  and  came  to  re- 
gard instruction  in  the  natural  sciences  as  an  essential 
part  of  the  training  of  a  man  who  is  to  be  fully  fitted  for 
the  duties  of  our  time.  His  hearty  cooperation  in  the 
creation  of  new  professorships  of  natural  science  in  the 
University  was  by  no  means  the  least  of  his  many  valua- 
ble services. 

"  To  the  questions  whether  advanced  instruction  should 
be  given  in  Brown  University  to  graduates,  and  the  de- 
grees of  Master  of  Arts  and  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  after 
given  courses  of  study  and  rigid  and  satisfactory  exami- 
nations, should  be  conferred,  he  gave  careful  attention, 
taking  the  liveliest  interest  in  discussing  them.  He  held 
that  no  institution  of  learning  calling  itself  a  university 
could,  without  recreancy  to  its  trusts,  withhold  such  in- 
struction and  degrees  from  those  who  might  ask  and 
prove  themselves  worthy  to  receive  them.  It  was  largely 
through  his  influence  and  advocacy  in  the  Board  of  Fel- 
lows that  a  beginning  of  such  instruction  was  made,  and 
the  degrees,  to  which  candidates  by  examinations  had 
proved  themselves  entitled,  were  conferred. 

"  One  of  the  last  of  the  many  services  of  Professor 
Gammell  was  the  preparation  of  an  elaborate  report  on 
the  question  whether  the  doors  of  Brown  University 


WILLIAM  G 'A MM ELL.  57 

should  be  open  to  the  admission  of  young  women  as  can- 
didates for  degrees.  The  question  had  for  two  or  three 
years  been  before  the  Corporation,  and  a  numerical  ma- 
jority of  its  members  were  in  favor  of  their  admission. 
A  strong  and  determined  minority  were  opposed.  Pro- 
fessor Gammell,  as  chairman  of  a  committee  to  consider 
the  subject,  was  requested  to  present  a  report  on  it.  His 
report,  prepared  with  great  care,  was  submitted  to  the 
Corporation  at  its  annual  meeting,  in  September,  1888, 
and  was  so  satisfactory  to  the  advocates  of  both  sides  of 
the  controversy  that  they  unanimously  asked  for  its  pub- 
lication ;  and  it  was  voted  that  it  should  accompany  the 
published  report  of  the  President  at  the  end  of  the  aca- 
demic year  then  ensuing.  On  subsequent  reflection  he 
expressed  to  me  an  unwillingness  to  have  the  report  pub- 
lished, and  especially  so  without  some  revision  and  possi- 
ble additions.  I  reminded  him  that  before  it  would  be 
necessary  to  print  there  would  be  the  meeting  of  the  Cor- 
poration in  June,  at  which  he  could  either  decline  their 
request  or  the  desired  changes  could  be  considered. 
Alas !  before  June  came  he  had  passed  from  this  world, 
and  in  compliance  with  his  wishes  his  report  was  not  pub- 
lished. 

"  Of  the  personal  characteristics  of  Professor  Gam- 
mell's  service  in  the  Corporation,  the  most  marked,  and 
that  which  gave  it  special  value  and  influence,  was  his 
perfect  frankness  and  transparency  of  motive.  He  seemed 
absolutely  incapable  of  indirections.  In  his  advocacy  of 
a  measure  he  never  put  forward  plausible  reasons  while 
concealing  the  real  ones.  Politic  men  would  have  thought 
him  deficient  in  tact.  He  evidently  thought  honesty  not 
only  the  best  policy,  but  the  only  principle  of  action  by 
which  an  honorable  and  honest  man,  and  specially  a 
Christian  man,  should  always  and  everywhere  be  actuated. 
In  all  my  relations  with  Professor  Gammell,  I  was  never 


58  MEMORIAL. 

for  one  moment,  in  doubt,  in  any  action  of  his  as  to  what 
he  really  thought,  or  what  he  believed,  or  what  were  his 
motives.  All  were  as  clear  as  the  sunlight.  In  his  death 
Brown  University  lost  one  of  the  stanchest,  most  disin- 
terested, most  painstaking,  and  most  intelligent  of  its 
guardians  and  friends." 

In  the  founding  of  the  Butler  Hospital  for  the 
Insane  Professor  Gammell  manifested  the  deepest 
interest.  He  was  appointed  one  of  its  trustees,  and 
it  is  touching  to  find  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Pro- 
fessor Chace,  written  from  Rome,  Italy,  in  March, 
1879,  the  following  allusion  to  Butler  Hospital, 
showing  how  strongly  he  felt  his  responsibilities  : 
"  I  greatly  fear  that  Mr.  Hazard's  absence  and  my 
own  will  occasion  embarrassment  to  the  Butler  Hos- 
pital board.  I  wish  now  that  I  had  resigned  my 
place  then,  for  I  always  fear  that  in  such  an  institu- 
tion the  supervision  may  be  allowed  to  become  less 
and  less  careful.  If  the  old  standard  is  once  low- 
ered, it  will  not  be  easy  to  raise  it  again.  It  was 
fixed  at  the  beginning  by  heroic  devotion  to  the 
hospital,  and  I  shall  be  grieved  to  have  it  changed." 

On  Professor  Gammell's  devotion  to  this  institu- 
tion and  its  kindred  institution,  the  Rhode  Island 
Hospital,  Mr.  William  Goddard  has  written  with  so 
much  discrimination  and  beauty  that  his  words,  with 
the  resolutions  adopted  on  the  occasion  of  Professor 
Gammell's  death,  obviate  all  necessity  for  further 
enlargement  on  this  theme :  — 

"On  the  27th  of  January,  1875,  Mr.  Garnmell  was  elected 
a  trustee  of  the  Butler  Hospital  for  the  Insane. 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  59 

"  His  interest  in  this  great  charity  had  been  fostered  by 
an  intimate  acquaintance  with  its  beneficent  purposes,  and 
by  personal  observation  of  its  measureless  blessings  to 
those  who  were  afflicted  with  the  various  forms  of  mental 
disease.  His  acute  mind  clearly  discerned  the  impor- 
tance to  the  safety  of  society  of  this  place  of  seclusion 
and  of  restraint  for  those  whose  delusions  were  danger- 
ous both  to  themselves  and  to  their  fellow-men.  Before 
Mr.  GammelTs  election  to  this  responsible  office  he  had 
rendered  important  aid  to  the  hospital  by  literary  work, 
undertaken  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Ives,  its  first  secretary. 
He  was  therefore,  by  familiarity  with  the  work  of  the 
hospital,  as  well  as  by  his  mental  endowments  and  by  his 
sympathy  with  all  forms  of  human  suffering,  exception- 
ally equipped  for  the  high  trust  of  its  guardianship. 

"  I  can  bear  testimony  to  the  fidelity  with  which  he  dis- 
charged the  varied  and  often  trying  duties  of  this  office. 

"  He  laid  claim  to  no  knowledge  of  mechanics,  and  he 
was  always  ready  to  refer  to  those  trained  in  such  mat- 
ters all  questions  relating  to  the  purely  mechanical  con- 
cerns of  the  hospital.  In  this  respect  he  displayed  a  wis- 
dom which  gave  the  greater  value  to  his  opinions  upon 
the  subjects  within  the  extensive  range  of  his  thought 
and  study. 

"  The  successful  administration  of  a  great  hospital  de- 
mands of  its  guardians  something  more  than  knowledge 
of  construction  and  maintenance,  of  problems  of  ventila- 
tion and  of  sewage  disposal,  however  vital  these  questions 
may  be.  It  requires  of  them  familiarity  with  statutes 
affecting  the  restraint  of  the  personal  liberty  of  patients, 
and  with  those  universal  laws  that  govern  all  human  ef- 
forts for  the  cure  of  mental  disease  as  well  as  the  allevia- 
tion of  the  wretchedness  which  results  from  it.  But  moi'e 
than  all  else  is  the  constant  appeal  to  the  deepest  sympa- 
thy with  a  form  of  misery  to  which  '  all  sorts  and  condi- 


60  MEMORIAL. 

tions  of  men '  are  alike  liable,  from  which  neither  youth 
nor  age  is  exempt,  and  which  in  many  of  its  aspects  is  far 
worse  than  any  other  disease  with  which  the  human  being 
can  be  afflicted. 

'  Omni  membrorum  damno  major  dementia.' 

"In  exhaustless  sympathy  with  sickness  and  sorrow,  in 
that  broad  philanthropy,  which  counts  no  sacrifice  too 
great  for  the  good  of  the  afflicted,  and  in  the  compre- 
hensive conception  of  all  the  obligations  of  charity  and 
the  resources  of  science,  Mr.  Gammell  was  preeminent 
among  the  large-hearted  and  gifted  men  whose  liberality 
and  devotion  have  given  to  the  Butler  Hospital  for  the 
Insane  its  distinction  among  contemporary  charities.  He 
never  neglected  any  duty  devolving  upon  him,  and  often 
made  his  weekly  visitations  when  almost  disabled  by  illness. 
Of  the  annual  reports,  by  which  the  work  of  the  hospital 
is  made  known  and  its  pressing  wants  are  explained,  no 
less  than  six  proceeded  from  his  graceful  and  earnest  pen. 
Most  of  the  occasional  appeals  of  the  trustees  to  the  pub- 
lic and  to  the  benefactors  of  the  hospital  during  his  long 
term  of  office  emanated  from  him.  His  manners  to  the 
patients  were  singularly  attractive  and  cheering,  and  he 
overlooked  nothing  that  would  diminish  their  sense  of 
confinement  or  add  to  their  slender  store  of  happiness. 
His  services  will  be  long  and  gratefully  remembered  by 
his  associates,  and  in  the  lucid  intervals  which  sometimes 
come  even  to  the  clouded  intellect  of  the  insane  his  name 
is  mentioned  with  respect. 

"  In  the  work  which  preceded  the  organization  of  the 
Rhode  Island  Hospital  Mr.  Gammell  took  a  conspicu- 
ous part.  His  appeals  in  behalf  of  this  noble  charity 
awakened  throughout  the  State  that  sentiment  of  per- 
sonal obligation  toward  the  sick  and  the  helpless,  which 
resulted  in  the  foundation  of  a  hospital  that  adds  fresh 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  61 

honor  to  the  name  it  bears.  At  its  opening  in  1868,  he 
was  chosen  to  deliver  the  address,  which  should  com- 
memorate the  liberality  of  its  founders  and  foreshadow 
its  career  of  usefulness  and  philanthropy.  The  occasion 
was  a  memorable  one,  and  the  orator  was  worthy  of  it. 
The  long  toil  was  ended,  and  they  whose  hearts  had 
yearned  for  the  sight  stood  within  a  completed  building, 
symmetrical  in  its  proportions,  equipped  with  the  latest 
development  of  science,  and  to  be  dedicated  to  the  solace 
of  suffering  and  the  cure  of  disease.  He  looked  upon 
the  faces  of  men  and  women  whose  Christian  liberality 
had  finished  this  great  work,  and  he  must  have  felt  the 
invisible  presence  of  those  whose  hearts  had  ceased  to  beat 
save  in  the  renewed  pulses  of  charity  and  human  sympa- 
thy. The  impulse  that  upon  that  day  he  gave  to  the 
Rhode  Island  Hospital  has  never  spent  its  force. 

"  For  more  than  twenty-five  years  Mr.  Gammell  was  a 
Director  in  the  Providence  National  Bank.  His  relation 
to  this  venerable  institution  was  characteristic  of  the  man. 
His  studies  had  not  fitted  him  to  judge  of  credits,  and 
only  the  experience  of  his  later  life  had  taught  him  the 
maxims  and  methods  with  which  practiced  merchants  and 
bankers  are  necessarily  familiar.  But  he  brought  to  the 
discharge  of  his  official  duties  that  knowledge  of  broad 
and  general  principles  which  is  one  of  the  best  fruits  of 
academic  training,  and  he  regarded  his  office  as  a  trust  to 
whose  every  obligation  he  was  always  faithful.  It  is  too 
much  the  fashion  of  the  age  for  men  to  accept  office,  and 
to  neglect  its  obvious  or  implied  obligations.  Directors 
and  trustees  are  attentive  to  their  duties  more  from  mo- 
tives of  self-interest  than  from  a  sense  of  duty  and  a  high 
conception  of  the  meaning  of  a  trust. 

"  Mr.  Gammell  yielded  to  no  such  heresy.  He  believed 
in  the  performance  of  every  duty  to  the  best  of  his  ability, 
and  the  records  of  the  Board  of  Directors  show  with  what 


62  MEMORIAL. 

astonishing  regularity  he  participated  in  its  deliberations, 
and  how  fully  he  shared  its  labors  and  responsibilities. 
While  never  unmindful  that  the  business  of  life  demands 
hard  work  and  unremitting  energy,  that  the  sluggard 
and  the  doctrinaire  are  certain  to  fail  in  the  struggle 
for  its  prizes,  he  always  impressed  upon  his  companions 
that  they  were  made  for  something  else  than  to  be  '  hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,'  and  that  educated  men 
discharged  but  a  small  part  of  their  duties  to  society  by 
the  mere  getting  of  shekels  of  gold  and  silver.  He  knew 
that  the  triumphs  of  civilization  are  possible  only  in  com- 
munities successful  in  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  but  he 
also  felt  and  inculcated  the  obligations  imposed  upon  its 
possessors. 

"  Nothing  could  be  more  delightful  than  the  relations  of 
the  scholar  to  this  congregation  of  merchants  and  bankers, 
to  most  of  whom  he  had  taught  the  philosophy  of  life,  the 
charm  of  letters,  the  full  power  of  education,  and  the 
operation  of  those  laws  which  are  ordained  for  the  moral 
government  of  the  universe." 

MINUTE 

ADOPTED   BY   THE   TRUSTEES   OF   BUTLER   HOSPITAL. 

By  the  death  of  Professor  William  Gammell,  April  3, 
1889,  the  Butler  Hospital  for  the  Insane  lost  a  trusted 
counselor  and  an  earnest  friend. 

For  more  than  fourteen  years  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees,  and  his  quick  sympathy,  his  clear, 
trained  intellect,  and  his  large  experience  were  always 
freely  devoted  to  the  best  interests  of  the  institution. 

Scrupulously  faithful  in  the  performance  of  every  duty, 
his  example  was  a  stimulus  to  his  fellow-trustees  and  to 
the  officers  of  the  hospital.  His  bright  and  cheerful 
words  made  him  a  welcome  visitor  to  all  the  patients. 
Liberal  without  ostentation ;  learned  without  pedantry  ;  an 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  63 

accurate  thinker,  yet  tolerant  of  the  mistakes  of  others ; 
an  earnest  Christian  without  any  of  the  bitterness  of  the 
sectarian  ;  courteous  and  of  polished  manners,  but  uncom- 
promising in  his  hostility  to  all  shams,  he  won  the  respect 
and  love  of  all  who  knew  him,  and  his  death  is  felt  by 
each  of  his  associates  on  this  board  as  a  personal  loss. 

The  Providence  Athenaeum  had  been  opened  to 
the  citizens  of  Providence  as  a  public  library  in  1838, 
with  an  address  by  Dr.  Wayland.  In  this  institu- 
tion Professor  Gammell  had  the  warmest  interest, 
not  only  from  his  love  of  books,  but  from  his  con- 
viction that  such  institutions  are  essential  to  the  best 
interests  of  our  municipal  life.  Long  before  he 
held  any  official  connection  with  it,  he  had  given  his 
cordial  support  to  its  labors.  But  he  rendered  it  a 
long  and  active  official  service.  He  was  chosen  one 
of  its  directors  September  26,  1853,  and  held  the 
office  four  years;  was  rechosen  in  1864,  serving  it 
four  years  longer  as  director,  and  then  made  its 
Vice-President  from  1868  to  1870.  He  was  chosen 
President  in  1870,  and  filled  this  office  till  1882,  — 
having  thus,  in  varied  capacities,  devoted  himself 
to  its  objects  for  twenty-two  years.  The  minute 
from  its  records  here  given  shows  in  what  esteem  his 
services  were  held  by  his  associates :  — 

"  The  communication  from  Professor  William  Gammell, 
declining  another  election  to  the  office  of  President,  being 
called  up  for  further  action,  the  following  minute  in  refer- 
ence thereto  was  ordered  to  be  incorporated  in  the  record 
of  proceedings. 

"  While  the  directors  of  the  Providence  Athenaeum  feel 
constrained  to  accept  as  final  the  conclusion  of  Professor 


64  MEMORIAL. 

Gammell,  it  having  been  reached  '  in  accordance  with  a 
purpose  formed  some  years  ago,'  yet  they  desire  to  make 
record  of  the  fact  that  they  accede  to  his  wish  with  reluc- 
tance, and  in  disregard  of  their  own  judgment  and  feel- 
ings, both  of  which  prompt  them  to  continue  him  in  a  po- 
sition which  he  has  so  long,  so  wisely,  and  so  acceptably 
filled. 

"  Conspicuous  as  have  been  the  predecessors  of  Professor 
Gammell  for  their  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  Athe- 
naeum, its  directors  wish  to  make  an  enduring  record  of 
their  confident  belief  that  no  one  of  them  ever  did  or  could 
surpass  him  in  the  intelligent  zeal,  the  untiring  industry, 
and  the  deep  interest  with  which  he  has  discharged  his 
duties  as  its  President,  and  as  chairman  of  its  two  most 
important  committees. 

"  And  in  tendering  him  their  grateful  acknowledgment 
of  his  past  services,  they  wish  also  to  express  to  him  their 
earnest  hope  that  he  may  be  spared  for  many  years  to 
come,  to  aid  by  his  counsel  and  cheer  by  his  presence  those 
to  whom  the  interests  of  this  institution  may  be  intrusted. 

"  And  it  is  further  ordered  that  a  copy  of  this  minute, 
signed  by  the  President  and  the  Secretary,  be  forwarded 
to  Professor  Gammell." 

For  fifteen  years  he  held  the  presidency  of  the 
Rhode  Island  Bible  Society.  Christian  scholar  that 
he  was,  none  knew  better  than  he,  from  his  histor- 
ical studies,  what  a  part  our  English  Bible  has  played 
in  English  civilization,  and  what  large  and  vital  in- 
terests depend  on  its  free  circulation  among  the 
people.  He  followed  with  interest  all  the  modern 
questions  as  to  its  interpretation.  When  the  Revised 
Version  appeared  he  studied  it  with  some  care,  pre- 
paring a  notice  of  it  for  the  "  Providence  Journal." 


WILLIAM  G  A  MM  ELL.  65 

He  was  too  ripe  an  English  scholar  not  to  be  pro- 
foundly appreciative  of  the  King  James  Version  as 
an  English  classic.  But  he  was  no  blind  worshipper 
of  the  past,  kept  his  mind  open  to  any  improvements, 
and  was  ready  to  welcome  the  New  Version  if  it  gave 
a  more  perfect  rendering  of  the  Word  of  God.  His 
devotion  to  the  Bible  rested,  however,  on  the  deep- 
est foundations,  not  on  scholarly  tastes.  He  found 
a  congenial  field  of  labor  in  the  duties  of  his  presi- 
dency of  the  Bible  Society.  What  he  accomplished 
in  this  field  of  Christian  work  the  following  min- 
utes from  the  records  of  the  society  will  show. 

PROVIDENCE,  R.  I.,  February  18, 1890. 

He  was  elected  President  September  2, 1869,  and  served 
the  society  in  this  office  until  October  14,  1884,  when 
he  declined  a  reelection.  The  following  resolutions  were 
presented  and  unanimously  adopted  at  a  special  meeting 
held  May  19,  1885. 

Whereas,  at  the  last  annual  meeting,  Professor  William 
Gammell,  LL.  D.,  on  account  of  other  pressing  engage- 
ments declined  a  reelection  as  presiding  officer  of  this 
society,  — 

Resolved,  That  it  has  been  with  deep  regret  that  the 
society  has  consented  to  his  retirement  from  its  presi- 
dency, which  he  has  held  for  so  many  years,  and  which 
office  he  has  filled  with  so  much  dignity,  faithfulness,  and 
efficiency.  His  energy  and  sound  judgment  have  im- 
pressed themselves  upon  the  action  of  the  society  in  its 
explorations  of  the  destitute  portions  of  the  State,  and  the 
wide  circulation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  from  year  to  year, 
through  its  agency,  has  been  greatly  promoted  during  his 
administration. 


66  MEMORIAL. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  board  are  hereby  ten- 
dered to  the  late  President. 

Voted,  That  the  resolutions  be  placed  on  the  records  of 
the  society,  and  that  a  copy  be  sent  to  ex-President  Gam- 
mell. 

He  was  also  chosen  a  Vice-President  of  the  Amer- 
ican Bible  Society  in  1884.  The  managers  of  that 
society,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  adopted  a  minute 
recording  their  high  appreciation  of  his  efficient  ef- 
forts as  President  of  the  Rhode  Island  Bible  Society 
in  promoting  the  "  Fourth  General  Supply  of  the 
United  States."  In  discharging  public  trusts  like 
these  much  of  Professor  Gammell's  time  was  passed. 
They  engrossed  him.  He  gave  to  them  not  only 
his  time,  but  his  thought,  and  took  no  office  to  which 
he  did  not  bring  an  earnest  and  willing  service. 

He  had  a  high  ideal  of  citizenship.  Abhorring  po- 
litical partisanship,  he  had  always  a  decided  opinion 
on  questions  of  the  day.  He  stood  in  general  aloof 
from  party  gatherings  of  any  sort.  He  had  little 
taste  for  popular  assemblies,  was  wanting  perhaps  in 
popular  sympathies.  His  historical  studies  as  well 
as  his  inborn  predilections  gave  him  a  strong  con- 
tempt for  the  windy  patriotism  of  the  stump  or  the 
hustings.  He  failed,  possibly,  to  realize  what  the 
modern  mission  of  the  scholar  in  politics  involves. 
But  one  occasion  stands  out,  when  he  with  other  cit- 
izens stepped  forward  to  rouse  as  well  as  guide  pop- 
ular sentiment.  When  Charles  Sumner  was  so  bru- 
tally assaulted  in  the  Senate  Chamber  of  the  United 
States,  the  citizens  of  Providence,  without  distinction 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  67 

of  party,  met  in  Howard  Hall  on  the  evening  of  June 
7,  1856.  His  Honor  Mayor  Smith  called  the  meet- 
ing to  order.  Alexander  Duncan  was  chosen  to  pre- 
side. Dr.  Caswell  offered  a  series  of  resolutions, 
which  were  supported  in  vigorous  addresses  by  Pro- 
fessor Gammell,  the  Hon.  C.  S.  Bradley,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Hedge,  and  Dr.  Wayland.  It  was  a  memorable 
occasion  in  the  history  of  the  city  as  well  as  the 
country.  All  the  addresses  on  the  topic  which  was 
absorbing  the  mind  of  the  North  were  much  above 
the  level  of  ordinary  popular  addresses.  That  by 
Professor  Gammell,  while  it  disclosed  the  historical 
scholar  in  its  allusions,  revealed  also  the  thoughtful 
but  determined  patriot.  Free  from  all  empty  de- 
nunciation, it  was  weighty  with  righteous  scorn  and 
with  just  reasoning. 

Mention  has  been  made  already  of  Professor  Gam- 
mell's  writings,  but  not  of  all  his  work  in  this  line 
of  literary  effort.  He  was  associate  editor  of  the 
"  Christian  Review  "  for  the  years  1850-52.  Not 
only  did  he  contribute  articles  to  its  pages,  but 
gave  Dr.  Cutting,  its  editor,  the  benefit  of  his  coun- 
sels and  help  in  maintaining  it.  A  more  important 
work,  however,  was  the  contribution  of  articles  to 
the  "Examiner,"  a  weekly  religious  journal  rep- 
resenting the  Baptist  denomination,  and  published 
in  New  York.  During  almost  the  entire  period  of 
the  war  for  the  Union,  he  wrote  a  weekly  letter  on 
the  events  occurring  in  the  great  struggle,  and  the 
principles  involved  in  it.  They  attracted  wide  and 
special  attention,  and  were  complimented  in  the 


68  MEMORIAL. 

warmest  terms  by  the  great  war  secretary,  the  Hon. 
Edwin  M.  Stanton.  At  no  period  in  the  history  of 
the  newspaper  press  has  it  been  called  to  more  ardu- 
ous or  more  responsible  service  than  during  the  fluc- 
tuating issues  of  that  fearful  strife.  It  was  not 
only  the  varying  fortunes  of  the  war,  but  it  was  the 
very  important  questions  which  rose  from  time  to 
time,  and  on  which  the  public  needed  enlighten- 
ment ;  it  was  the  need  also  of  encouragement  under 
the  frightful  cost  of  the  battles,  not  in  money,  but 
in  life,  and  of  support  against  insidious  foes  in  the 
Northern  household,  which  called  for  the  strongest 
and  most  constant  service  from  the  press. 

Professor  GammelTs  articles  were  given  a  prom- 
inent place  in  the  paper,  and  appeared  under  the 
general  title  of  "  Thoughts  on  Current  Events."  A 
glance  at  the  titles  of  some  of  the  more  important 
will  show  the  range  of  discussion  they  took  as  well 
as  the  aim  they  pursued.  On  July  11,  1862,  one 
appeared  entitled  "  Proposals  of  Mediation,  France 
and  England."  It  was  succeeded  in  the  issue  of  the 
week  following  by  one  on  "  Sources  of  Solicitude." 
After  General  McClellan's  failure  before  Richmond, 
Professor  Gammeh1  wrote,  August  7,  1862,  on  "  The 
Present  Hour  and  its  Demands,"  followed  in  the  next 
issue  by  an  article  on  "  The  Drafting  Order."  In 
September,  he  had  one  entitled  "  Assailing  the  Gov- 
ernment." He  wrote  hi  January  of  the  next  year 
on  the  "Border  States  Becoming  Free,"  and  so  to 
the  close  of  the  gigantic  struggle.  After  it  was 
over  his  pen  was  still  occupied  in  discussing  the 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  69 

problems  of  the  hour.  Two  significant  articles  ap- 
peared in  the  summer  of  1865 :  one  on  "  Wise 
Delays  in  Reconstruction,"  the  other  on  "  England 
and  her  Humiliation."  The  tone  of  these  articles 
was  conservative,  but  loyal  to  the  core.  He  held 
throughout  a  courageous  attitude.  He  never  be- 
trayed the  slightest  faltering  in  the  darkest  hour. 
He  viewed  the  whole  contest  in  the  light  of  history. 
He  brought  his  historical  studies  to  bear  on  all  his 
discussions.  He  had  learned  in  that  school  to  dis- 
criminate between  eddies  and  the  main  current.  He 
planted  himself  on  general  principles,  and  hence  he 
was  not  easily  shaken.  Among  all  his  good  services 
to  the  community,  this  series  of  writings  must  al- 
ways stand  conspicuous.  As  one  turns  the  files  of 
the  paper  containing  these  timely,  telling,  well-con- 
sidered articles,  there  is  no  wonder  raised  at  Secre- 
tary Stanton's  warm  appreciation  of  them.  They 
were  worth  squadrons  in  the  field. 

For  many  years,  also,  he  furnished  articles  to  the 
"  Providence  Journal,"  whose  accomplished  editor, 
the  Hon.  Henry  B.  Anthony,  was  his  friend.  In 
this  he  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Professor  God- 
dard.  His  contributions  took  various  shapes  :  some- 
times reflections  on  current  events,  then  discussions 
of  matters  pertaining  to  Rhode  Island  history,  or 
the  cause  of  education.  Notable  among  them  were 
his  commemorative  notices  of  prominent  citizens.  If 
these  were  somewhat  stately  in  form,  yet  they  were 
always  in  perfect  taste,  and  delineated  the  life  or 
the  services  with  fidelity  and  felicity  too.  It  is  only 


70  MEMORIAL. 

needful  to  recall  such  notices  from  his  pen  as  those 
on  Dr.  Isaac  Ray,  Mr.  William  T.  Dorrance ;  on  his 
colleagues,  President  Wayland  ("  Examiner  and 
Chronicle  "),  Professors  Caswell  and  Chace  ;  on  the 
Hon.  William  S.  Slater,  Zachariah  Allen,  and  Henry 
B.  Anthony.  A  kindred  service  was  rendered  the 
college  in  the  necrology  of  its  graduates,  which  he 
prepared  for  thirty  years.  It  was  read  at  the  annual 
Commencement,  and  was  a  model  of  its  kind.  He 
followed  closely  the  fortunes  of  the  graduates,  and 
as  they  fell  one  by  one  at  their  different  posts  of 
duty,  the  departure  was  chronicled  in  kindly  words. 
No  matter  how  humble  or  obscure  the  position  he 
may  have  filled,  if  the  graduate  had  done  a  good 
work  in  life,  a  few  well-chosen  words  recalled  him 
fitly  to  his  brethren  still  in  the  march  of  life. 

Thus  far  the  sketch  of  Professor  GammelTs  life 
has  been  mainly  occupied  with  the  outward  manifes- 
tations of  that  life  in  its  professional  and  public  re- 
lations. It  has  sought  to  disclose  the  scholar  at  his 
work,  and  using  his  scholarly  gifts  in  the  service  of 
good  causes.  But  did  it  stop  here,  some  important 
characteristics,  some  of  the  finer  qualities  of  the 
man,  would  be  unnoticed.  It  is  always,  indeed,  dif- 
ficult to  portray  an  inner  life.  It  eludes  analysis. 
Even  when  "  diaries  "  and  "  correspondence"  furnish 
clues  to  the  more  private  and  sacred  experiences, 
it  is  hard  to  transfer  to  any  pages 

"  The  beaming  eye,  the  cheering  voice, 
That  lent  to  life  a  generous  glow." 

Professor  Gammell  impressed  himself  on  life  about 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  71 

him  largely  by  means  of  his  superior  social  gifts. 
He  had  a  ready  flow  of  conversation,  had  at  com- 
mand a  varied  fund  of  knowledge  derived  from  his 
converse  with  books,  was  full  of  a  contagious  cheer- 
fulness, brought  life  into  the  discussions  in  which 
he  took  part,  enjoyed  deeply  the  wit  of  other  men, 
and  at  times  threw  out  flashes  of  his  own  in  quick 
repartee  or  comment.  The  society  of  Providence 
for  many  years  recognized  in  him  one  of  its  most  ac- 
complished leaders.  If  any  man  of  distinction  was 
to  be  honored  socially,  Professor  Gammell  was  sure 
to  be  one  of  the  invited  guests.  He  was  specially 
fond  of  coming  in  contact  with  those  interested  in 
literary  pursuits,  dispensed  a  charming  hospitality 
to  them  in  his  own  home.  But  in  any  general  com- 
pany he  had  the  art  of  enlisting  all  in  talk,  and  no 
one  knew  better  than  he  how  to  avoid  "  shop " 
when  general  conversation  was  the  proper  demand. 
It  is  common  to  hear  his  manners  spoken  of  as 
formal,  courtly,  with  a  touch  of  coldness  or  reserve 
about  them.  To  the  public  this  was  his  mien,  but 
to  the  more  private  circles  he  was  simply  the  genial 
companion  or  the  kindly,  gracious  host.  Perhaps 
his  social  gifts  found  one  of  their  best  expressions 
at  the  Friday  Evening  Club,  whose  story  is  told  by 
Bishop  Clark,  in  the  following  paper,  with  equal 
vividness  and  beauty. 


72  MEMORIAL. 

PROFESSOR  GAMMELL  AND  THE  FRIDAY  EVENING 

CLUB. 

On  the  16th  of  January,  1868,  Professor  Gammell,  with 
a  few  other  gentlemen,  organized  an  association  "  for  the 
discussion  of  literary,  philosophical,  aesthetic,  historical, 
and  scientific  subjects,"  and  it  was  arranged  that  they 
should  meet  in  turn  every  alternate  Friday  night  at  each 
other's  houses,  when  "  each  member  in  succession  will  be 
required  to  prepare  and  present  a  subject  for  discussion, 
either  orally  or  in  writing,  —  simple  refreshments  to  be 
served  at  ten  o'clock."  The  Club  embraced  represen- 
tatives of  the  clerical,  legal,  and  medical  professions, — 
teachers  of  science,  philosophy,  history,  and  the  languages, 
book-makers  and  book-collectors,  a  bank  officer,  and  a 
manufacturer.  It  continued  to  meet,  with  its  ranks  un- 
broken by  death  or  removal,  until  the  year  1877,  when 
Dr.  Alexis  Caswell,  formerly  President  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity, in  a  ripe  old  age  and  while  his  natural  force  was 
still  unabated,  suddenly  passed  away.  In  the  course  of  a 
few  years,  the  accomplished  Professor  J.  L.  Diman  was 
taken  from  us,  in  the  very  prime  of  his  days,  and  without 
the  slightest  premonition  of  his  departure.  On  Friday, 
the  27th  of  February,  1881,  the  Club  met  at  his  house, 
and  were  entertained  by  him  with  his  usual  cordiality 
and  cheerfulness,  and  on  the  following  Thursday  he  had 
ceased  to  live  on  earth.  Next  followed  Alexander  Far- 
num,  President  of  the  Rhode  Island  Trust  Company,  and 
who  had  been  the  Secretary  and  Treasurer  of  the  Club 
from  the  beginning :  a  man  of  wonderful  gifts  and  varied 
learning,  and  who,  amid  the  pressure  of  an  active  busi- 
ness life,  always  found  time  for  careful  study  and  reflec- 
tion. 

Then  there  dropped  out  of  our  ranks,  in  somewhat  rapid 
succession,  John  R.  Bartlett,  who,  in  his  earlier  days,  was 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  73 

at  the  head  of  the  Mexican  Boundary  Commission,  and 
afterward  a  well-known  collector  and  writer  of  books,  — 
holding  for  several  years  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State 
in  Rhode  Island ;  Dr.  Edward  T.  Caswell,  an  eminent 
physician,  whose  papers  instructed  us  in  matters  of  med- 
ical science  which  only  an  expert  could  be  expected  to 
expound  ;  Professor  George  I.  Chace,  a  profound  thinker 
and  a  magnetic  educator,  who  did  his  part  in  forming 
and  stimulating  the  minds  of  many  of  our  best  and  ablest 
men  ;  the  Hon.  Charles  S.  Bradley,  at  one  time  professor 
in  the  Law  School  at  Cambridge,  a  distinguished  and  suc- 
cessful jurist,  and  at  the  same  time  an  enthusiast  in  art ; 
Professor  William  Gammell,  of  whom  we  shall  have  some- 
what more  to  say ;  and,  last  of  all,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel 
L.  Caldwell,  formerly  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
in  Providence,  professor  in  the  Theological  Seminary  in 
Newton,  Mass.,  and  afterward  President  of  Vassar  Col- 
lege, and  who  had  just  begun  to  collect  the  materials  for 
a  Life  of  Professor  Gammell  when  he  was  suddenly  called 
to  the  discharge  of  higher  duties  in  a  higher  sphere. 

It  is  not  appropriate  here  to  write  at  any  length  of  the 
delightful  and  instructive  meetings  that  were  held  on 
those  winter  nights  in  years  gone  by,  when  some  of  the 
ripest  scholars  and  ablest  thinkers  in  our  community  were 
willing  to  expend  their  best  strength  in  the  preparation  of 
articles  for  the  edification  of  the  little  circle  of  listeners 
who  were  wont  to  gather  around  our  Club  table.  All 
shades  of  political  and  theological  opinion  were  repre- 
sented, and  it  was  understood  that  every  man  was  at  lib- 
erty to  express  himself  without  reserve ;  but  no  unkind 
or  discourteous  words  were  ever  spoken,  and  no  discord 
disturbed  the  harmony  of  our  meetings.  The  social  ele- 
ment was  as  prominent  as  the  intellectual,  and  the  feeling 
seemed  gradually  to  grow  up  amongst  us  that  we  formed 
a  kind  of  family  by  ourselves,  —  a  sacred  brotherhood, 


74  MEMORIAL. 

bound  together  by  peculiar  and  very  intimate  ties.  It  is 
sad  to  think  that  the  lips  of  nearly  all  who  so  often  elec- 
trified us  with  their  brilliant  talk  are  silent  now.  The 
memory  of  those  pleasant  evenings  lingers  in  the  air,  like 
a  strain  of  distant  and  melancholy  music. 

Professor  Gammell  was,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end, 
one  of  the  most  prominent,  active,  and  loyal  members  of 
the  Friday  Evening  Club.  He  was  never  absent  from  its 
meetings,  unless  by  some  great  constraint,  and  he  entered 
into  our  proceedings  with  an  emphasis  that  seemed  to  ex- 
cite and  invigorate  us  all.  The  papers  that  he  presented 
were  carefully  prepared  and  full  of  rich  and  instructive 
thought.  The  subjects  of  which  he  wrote  are  preserved 
in  the  records  of  the  Club,  and  a  somewhat  full  analysis 
of  his  earlier  papers  may  be  found  there.  The  first  of 
these  was  read  on  the  6th  of  November,  1868,  on  "  The 
Nature  and  Results  of  Naturalization,"  and  a  brief  out- 
line of  this  paper  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  fullness  and 
precision  with  which  Professor  Gammell  was  accustomed 
to  treat  any  topic  that  he  was  called  to  handle.  He  begins 
with  a  careful  definition  of  the  term  "naturalization;" 
stating  the  laws  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  chief 
states  of  Europe  in  relation  to  the  subject ;  citing  sundry 
cases  which  have  arisen  between  our  own  and  foreign 
governments  in  which  were  involved  the  rights  of  natural- 
ized citizens  under  differing  laws  ;  showing  that  the  most 
recent  foreign  legislation  indicates  a  tendency  towards  a 
recognition  of  the  doctrine  of  the  right  of  complete  ex- 
patriation, for  which  American  statesmen  have  contended  ; 
and  closing  with  a  statement  of  some  of  the  evils  to  which 
we  are  exposed  by  the  present  state  of  our  naturalization 
laws  and  the  methods  of  their  enforcement,  with  sugges- 
tions as  to  the  possible  means  of  avoiding  those  evils. 

The  next  paper  was  on  "  The  Law  and  the  Gospel  of 
Divorce."  Assuming  marriage  to  be  a  divine  institution 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  75 

as  well  as  a  civil  contract,  the  professor  proceeds  to.  con- 
sider at  some  length  the  laws  of  divorce  that  existed  in 
the  great  states  of  antiquity,  with  a  sketch  of  the  revo- 
lution that  was  wrought  when  the  Latin  Church  pro- 
nounced marriage  to  be  a  sacrament,  and  therefore  indis- 
soluble. He  then  goes  on  to  show  how  the  teaching  of  the 
theologians  of  the  Reformation  has  led  to  the  recognition 
of  marriage,  in  most  Protestant  countries,  as  a  civil  con- 
tract, which,  under  certain  circumstances,  may  rightly  be 
dissolved.  The  existing  laws  of  divorce  in  various  coun- 
tries are  detailed,  followed  by  a  careful  examination  of  the 
argument  from  Scripture,  the  general  conclusion  being  that 
divorce  can  be  justified  for  only  a  single  cause. 

The  third  paper  is  on  "  The  Future  of  Labor,"  showing 
how  largely  the  future  of  civilization  is  involved  in  the 
future  of  labor ;  but  we  have  not  the  space  for  giving  a 
full  analysis  of  this  valuable  contribution  to  a  subject  that 
is  now  to  so  great  an  extent  agitating  the  community. 

"  Belligerency,  Neutrality,  and  Peace  "  was  the  next 
topic  presented  by  the  professor ;  but  as  the  outline  of  this 
treatise  fills  five  or  six  closely  written  pages  in  the  records 
of  the  Club,  I  must  leave  it  without  further  notice. 

The  professor's  fifth  paper,  on  "  The  Agency  of  Cities 
in  Modern  Civilization,"  was  particularly  adapted  to  bring 
out  the  stores  of  historical  knowledge  which  in  a  lifetime 
of  study  he  had  accumulated,  and  in  a  single  hour  valu- 
able treasures  were  opened  to  us  which  it  would  have  re- 
quired weeks  of  patient  toil  to  explore. 

I  must  now  confine  myself  to  a  simple  recapitulation  of 
the  subjects  presented  to  the  Club  by  Professor  Gammell, 
taking  them  in  their  order,  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  Present  Aspect  of  the  Labor  Question." 

"  International  Arbitration  as  a  Substitute  for  War." 

"  The  Life  and  Travels  of  Marco  Polo." 

"  The  Epochs  of  Civilization  in  the  United  States." 


76  MEMORIAL. 

"  Asylum  and  Extradition  among  Nations." 

'« The  Confederation  Period  of  the  Republic." 

"  History  of  the  Adoption  of  the  Constitution,  by  George 
Bancroft." 

"Tendencies  towards  a  General  Use  of  Comparative 
Method  in  History." 

"  Italy  Revisited." 

"  The  Monroe  Doctrine." 

Not  one  of  these  topics  was  treated  carelessly  ;  in  fact, 
Professor  Gammell  was  incapable  of  anything  like  care- 
less writing,  and  if  he  erred  at  all  it  was  in  the  direction 
of  an  excess  of  refinement  and  polish.  That  he  had  been 
a  teacher  of  rhetoric  might  be  inferred  from  the  stately 
flow  of  his  periods  and  the  delicate  finish  of  his  sentences ; 
just  as  we  might  have  known  that  he  had  been  an  in- 
structor in  history  from  the  amount  of  historical  illustra- 
tion in  almost  everything  that  he  wrote. 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  Friday  Evening  Club,  at  the 
close  of  every  paper,  to  call  upon  each  member  in  his  turn 
to  pronounce  judgment  upon  what  had  been  presented, 
and  on  these  occasions  the  professor  was  distinguished  by 
the  accuracy  and  copiousness  of  his  criticisms,  —  it  some- 
times appearing  as  if  he  must  have  prepared  himself  for 
the  symposium  with  more  care  than  the  essayist  himself. 
His  own  opinions  were  very  positive,  and  he  was  by  nature 
and  education  a  true  conservative ;  and  yet  he  was  willing 
to  listen  to  the  opinions  of  others  with  respect,  however 
seriously  he  might  differ  from  them,  and  ready  to  accord 
to  them  the  same  right  of  private  judgment  that  he 
claimed  for  himself.  He  was  always  pleasant  and  genial 
in  his  talk,  and  had  a  keen  sense  of  humor,  although  he 
rarely  indulged  in  it  of  his  own  motion.  He  did  not  deal 
in  apothegms  or  in  scintillating  expressions  ;  he  was  sen- 
sible, instructive,  and  entertaining,  but  made  no  special  at- 
tempt to  say  brilliant  and  sparkling  things.  He  was  not 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  77 

at  all  given  to  pyrotechnical  exhibitions.  His  humor  was 
rather  of  the  mild,  Addisonian  sort,  and  did  not  remind 
one  at  all  of  Carlyle  or  Sydney  Smith.  Still  he  was  never 
dull,  or  prosy,  or  commonplace,  and  when  he  opened  his 
mouth  we  were  sure  that  we  would  learn  something. 

Professor  Gammell  was  loyal  to  the  Club  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end,  seeming  to  regard  it  as  one  of  the 
chief  enjoyments  of  his  life ;  and  when  on  the  evening  of 
the  21st  of  November,  1884,  he  found  himself  present  at 
what  proved  to  be  its  last  meeting,  with  only  four  others 
present  of  the  original  members  of  the  Club,  the  reluc- 
tance with  which  he  relinquished  his  hold  upon  the  old 
fraternity,  and  his  unwillingness  to  do  anything  that  might 
look  like  putting  a  deliberate  end  to  its  existence,  is  evi- 
dent in  the  following  extract  from  the  minutes  :  — 

"  On  motion  of  Professor  Gammell  the  following  vote 
was  passed :  '  Voted,  that  the  meetings  of  the  Friday 
Evening  Club  be  suspended  till  such  time  as  it  may  seem 
practicable  to  resume  them,  at  the  call  of  the  Secretary 
pro  tern.' ' 

That  time  will  never  come,  and  already  two  of  the  four 
original  members  who  were  present  that  evening  have 
passed  away. 

It  has  interested  me  to  find  that  the  last  entry  made  in 
the  minutes  of  the  Club  is  from  Professor  Gammell's  pen, 
and  reads  as  follows  :  — 

"  Since  the  last  meeting  of  the  Friday  Evening  Club, 
our  greatly  esteemed  associate,  Alexander  Farnum,  has 
been  removed  by  death.  He  was  the  only  officer  the 
Club  has  ever  elected,  and  in  a  fuller  sense  than  is  true  of 
any  other  one  of  its  members  he  was  the  representative 
and  embodiment  of  its  life  and  spirit."  After  a  brief 
sketch  of  Mr.  Farnum's  career,  he  eulogizes  him  in  lan- 
guage, which  we  transcribe,  not  only  as  a  just  tribute  to 
the  memory  of  a  very  gifted  man,  but  also  as  a  specimen 


78  MEMORIAL. 

of  the  professor's  stately  and  flowing  style :  "  Possessed 
of  intellectual  endowments  of  superior  order,  he  had  ac- 
quired that  liberal  and  many-sided  culture  which  comes 
from  well-directed  studies,  from  travel  in  many  lands, 
and  from  practical  acquaintance  with  the  methods  of 
business  and  the  principles  of  finance.  He  had  also  col- 
lected for  his  own  use  a  large  and  select  library  of  the 
best  books  in  the  best  editions,  and  among  these  he  de- 
lighted to  spend  the  leisure  hours  of  every  day.  He  had 
thus  informed  himself  on  a  great  variety  of  interesting 
subjects,  and  was  familiar  with  most  of  the  important 
questions  of  the  time,  whether  political,  literary,  or  philo- 
sophical. But  over  all  his  gifts  and  acquirements  there 
shone  a  radiant  and  quick  intelligence,  a  genial  social 
spirit,  and  a  responsive  intellectual  sympathy,  which  fitted 
him  to  enliven  and  adorn  the  social  circles  in  which  he  ap- 
peared. He  thus  possessed  in  a  remarkable  degree  those 
qualities  of  mind  and  character  which  always  impart  the 
most  attractive  charm  to  the  meetings  of  an  association 
like  ours.  Nowhere  did  he  appear  to  better  advantage 
than  here.  How  nobly  he  performed  his  part,  how  well 
he  filled  his  place  among  us,  we  shall  never  forget.  How 
finished  were  his  papers,  how  independent  were  his  criti- 
cisms, how  brilliant  his  conversation,  how  sprightly  his 
wit,  how  much  in  every  way  he  contributed  to  these 
1  Noctes  Ambrosianae '  which  we  have  passed  together, 
will  always  be  among  the  cherished  memories  of  his  asso- 
ciates in  the  Friday  Evening  Club." 

After  the  last  meeting  of  the  Club  in  1884,  the  pro- 
fessor cherished  the  feeling  that  it  might  still  be  revived 
under  new  auspices ;  but  now  that  he  has  gone,  the  fra- 
ternity is  extinct,  and  the  little  handful  of  us  who  remain 
can  only  look  forward  with  the  hope  that  we  may  be  al- 
lowed to  meet  again  in  a  nobler  and  purer  sphere. 


WILLIAM   GAMMELL.  79 

Only  the  few  know  what  warmth  of  affection 
dwelt  in  his  nature.  He  made,  however,  long 
and  lasting  friendships.  If  to  some  he  seemed  un- 
sympathetic and  distant,  it  was  because  he  never 
cared  to  "  wear  his  heart  upon  his  sleeve."  Two  of 
these  friendships  are  types  of  an  intimacy  so  high 
and  true  that  they  well  deserve  a  passing  com- 
memoration. His  friendship  with  Professor  Chace 
was  formed  in  the  years  of  college  life,  when  together 
they  were  "  nursed  upon  the  selfsame  hill."  It  was 
kept  up  through  years  of  kindred  association  as 
members  of  the  Faculty,  in  different  chairs  of  the 
same  university.  It  was  preserved  by  devotion,  each 
to  the  other's  interests,  as  true  as  steel  and  more 
precious  than  gold.  They  shared  the  trials  and  tri- 
umphs of  life  —  sorrows  which  darkened  and  joys 
which  brightened  its  skies  —  more  closely  than 
brothers.  It  lasted  to  the  end,  —  through  fifty- 
seven  years ;  and  now,  together  in  the  land  of  light, 
we  doubt  not  they  have  renewed  its  bonds. 

Scarcely  less  notable  was  Professor  GammelFs 
friendship  with  Mr.  Robert  H.  Ives.  It  was  of  early 
growth.  It  deepened  with  every  year.  To  him  Mr. 
Ives  gave  his  confidence  freely.  He  was  intrusted 
with  confidences  no  one  else  shared.  On  all  matters 
of  literary  taste  or  execution  Mr.  Ives  sought  his 
opinion,  and  deferred  to  it  absolutely.  Every  day 
saw  them  together.  Professor  Gammell  reverenced 
in  Mr.  Ives  that  noble  elevation  of  character,  that 
strong,  massive  comprehension  of  affairs,  that  mod- 
est, quiet  demeanor,  which  so  well  became  but  never 


80  MEMORIAL. 

concealed  his  strength.  They  had  common  respon- 
sibilities as  members  of  the  Corporation  of  Brown 
University.  In  the  work  of  founding  the  Rhode  Isl- 
and Hospital,  of  which  Mr.  Ives,  bore  so  consider- 
able a  part,  the  sympathy  between  them  was  per- 
fect. And  it  was  one  of  many  proofs  of  regard  for 
Professor  Gammell  given  by  Mr.  Ives,  that  in  his 
will  he  bequeathed  an  annuity  of  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars and  a  life  interest  in  the  old  family  mansion  to 
his  friend. 

If  the  circle  of  Professor  GammeU's  more  inti- 
mate friends  was  not  large,  it  was  choice.  Among 
his  pupils  he  numbered  some  of  these.  They 
shared  his  gracious  and  genial  hospitality.  How 
warmly  he  followed  their  careers  in  life !  How 
ready  and  how  full  his  gratification  over  their  suc- 
cesses! How  open  to  their  desires  for  counsel! 
Indeed,  outside  academic  circles,  his  friendship  was 
a  help  and  solace  to  some  who  knew  him.  "He 
was  the  best  friend  I  ever  had,"  writes  an  accom- 
plished Christian  woman,  whom  he  had  known  for 
many  years ;  indeed,  from  girlhood.  In  the  time  of 
bereavement  and  consequent  care,  struggle,  and 
loneliness,  he  had  proved  the  most  sympathetic  of 
friends,  cheering  and  sustaining  her  by  almost  daily 
visits  to  her  darkened  home.  The  following  tribute 
to  his  memory  by  the  Rev.  J.  G.  Vose,  D.  D.,  while 
it  dwells  on  other  points  in  Professor  GammeU's 
character  and  career,  lays  special  emphasis  on  his 
qualities  as  a  friend. 

"  I  learned  to  esteem  Professor  Gammell  before  I  be- 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL,  81 

came  acquainted  with  him.  As  I  had  not  the  honor  of 
graduating  at  this  University,  I  count  myself  very  for- 
tunate in  having  the  early  acquaintance,  in  my  profes- 
sional studies  at  home  and  abroad,  —  not  the  acquaintance 
only,  but  I  may  venture  to  say  in  some  cases  the  intimate 
friendship,  —  of  some  of  the  choicest  sons  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity :  the  lamented  Diman  and  Dunn,  and,  among  the 
living,  such  men  as  Professors  Fisher,  of  New  Haven, 
and  Murray,  of  Princeton.  From  these  men  I  first  heard 
the  name  of  Gammell,  not  as  of  an  ordinary  teacher,  but 
spoken  of  with  youthful  familiarity;  indeed,  with  an  af- 
fectionate gratitude,  as  of  one  who  had  led  them  into  the 
pleasant  paths  of  literature,  and  inspired  them  with  a  de- 
sire for  something  pure  and  lofty,  encouraging  their  youth- 
ful efforts.  I  learned  to  admire  and  respect  our  friend 
from  them.  His  life  had  gone  out  into  theirs,  as  is  the 
case  with  all  true  teachers ;  not  the  precepts  only,  not  the 
canons  of  literary  taste,  but  a  certain  quality  of  mind  and 
heart,  a  love  of  all  high  thoughts  and  generous  emotions, 
that  must  be  felt  to  be  understood.  Professor  Gammell 
did  the  best  of  his  work,  perhaps,  in  the  influence  he  ex- 
erted over  others.  He  certainly  spent  many  of  the  best 
years  of  his  life  in  this  service. 

"  I  am  not  unmindful  of  his  excellent  writings  ;  surely 
in  this  place  we  cannot  forget  his  historical  papers,  his 
studies  in  special  fields,  or  his  wide  acquaintance  with  the 
domain  of  history.  But  he  gave  a  great  deal  of  his  life 
to  the  work  of  teaching.  He  spent  some  of  his  best  years 
in  those  efforts  which  seem  to  many  men  petty  and  trivial, 
to  correct  the  faults  and  prune  the  exuberance  of  youth, 
to  impart  to  generous  minds  a  sense  of  the  sacredness  of 
all  truth  and  beauty,  and  the  close  relation  there  is  be- 
tween refined  expression  and  a  pure  life.  Few  men  have 
ever  accomplished  so  much  as  he  in  that  particular  de- 
partment of  influence. 


82  MEMORIAL. 

"  It  is  common  to  look  down  on  criticism  ;  no  doubt  it 
has  been  perverted.  Men  have  themselves  become  lim- 
ited and  narrowed  in  attempting  to  employ  it.  Matthew 
Arnold  tells  us  that  Wordsworth  had  a  low  idea  of  criti- 
cism, and  quotes  this  saying  of  his  :  '  That  if  the  quantity 
of  time  consumed  in  critiques  on  the  works  of  others 
were  given  to  original  composition,  of  whatever  kind,  it 
would  be  much  better  employed  ;  it  would  make  a  man 
find  out  sooner  his  own  level,  and  do  infinitely  less  mis- 
chief.' We  can  see  reasons  why  Wordsworth  should  have 
thus  spoken,  in  the  shallow,  unjust,  and  even  spiteful  criti- 
cism to  which  he  was  subjected.  But  the  work  of  a  critic 
who  has  a  large  heart  and  a  quick  perception  of  genuine 
excellence  is  far  different  from  this,  and  may  save  to  life- 
long usefulness  what  would  else  be  wasted.  Such  was  the 
efficient  work  of  our  lamented  friend  for  the  young  men 
of  a  generation  ago  in  Brown  University,  who  imbibed 
from  him  just  views  of  expression,  of  a  simple  and  manly 
style,  enriched  by  all  the  wealth  of  heartfelt  imagination 
and  a  sincere  love  of  the  beautiful.  It  was  all  the  grander 
because  it  seemed  humble,  and  must  have  cost  an  amount 
of  patience  and  forbearance  that  can  scarcely  be  realized. 
It  was  all  the  richer  in  its  results  because  it  touched  life 
so  near  the  fountain  head ;  and  its  influence  has  been  seen 
in  many  a  noble  treatise,  in  oratory  that  has  charmed  the 
world,  in  a  higher  standard  of  journalism,  in  all  the  de- 
partments of  literature  and  the  utterances  of  moral  and 
religious  truth. 

"  And  here  we  reach  the  secret  of  excellence  in  the 
character  of  our  honored  friend  :  that  he  gave  so  much 
of  his  life  to  others.  Whatever  knowledge  and  skill  he 
possessed  he  held  as  a  treasury,  on  which  every  man  might 
draw  who  needed  them.  I  can  bear  personal  witness  to 
his  cordial  readiness  to  give  advice  and  encouragement 
in  literary  matters,  such  as  few  could  bestow.  His  own 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  83 

stores  were  used  to  aid  men,  and  not  to  hinder  them.  He 
cherished  no  contempts.  He  was  full  of  all  kind  and 
friendly  sentiments.  His  sympathies  were  not  locked  up 
in  his  own  bosom.  I  shall  not  forget  his  coming  to  my 
house  in  a  time  of  sickness,  when  I  was  suffering  from 
the  deepest  parental  anxiety,  bringing  with  him  that 
genuine  fellow-feeling  by  which  our  burdens  are  made 
lighter  and  our  faith  in  God  strengthened.  Nor  will 
either  you  or  I  forget  the  great  fortitude  which  he  ex- 
hibited under  the  recent  disappointment  of  his  earthly 
hopes.  Yet  the  prevailing  characteristic  of  his  life  was  a 
friendly  cheerfulness.  He  put  aside  his  own  sorrows  for 
the  welfare  of  others.  This  was  what  made  it  always 
pleasant  to  meet  him.  The  rare  courtesy  that  character- 
ized his  outward  demeanor  was  the  product  of  a  true  gen- 
tleman's instinct,  the  desire  to  confer  happiness  wherever 
he  went.  If  his  manners  seemed  to  some  a  little  formal 
and  precise,  they  were  the  courtly  manners  of  the  old 
school,  and  we  felt  beneath  them  the  throb  of  a  genuine 
hospitality  at  home  and  a  hearty  interest  abroad.  His 
air  of  leisure  and  of  deference  was  in  delightful  contrast 
to  the  brusque  and  hurried  greetings  of  modern  times, 
such  as  we  catch  from  the  telephone,  and  which  seem  to 
come  to  us  with  the  rush  of  modern  inventions  and  of 
labor-saving  machines  and  threaten  to  destroy  the  rever- 
ence of  the  young  and  the  charm  of  social  life. 

"  It  was  indeed  a  pleasure  to  meet  him  at  any  time. 
Like  some  of  our  good  citizens  on  the  hill,  he  often  ex- 
tended his  walks  far  over  on  the  west  side  of  the  city. 
His  cordial  greeting  can  never  be  forgotten.  Rarely  have 
I  met  him  but  he  wished  me  to  share  his  walk,  and  en- 
tered into  genial  discourse  on  matters  of  literature  or 
morals,  with  frequent  and  kindly  reference  to  the  friends 
of  early  days.  I  seem  to  see  him  now  at  the  corner  of 
the  street,  near  my  house,  where  he  lingered  with  me 


84  MEMORIAL. 

in  the  warm  sunshine,  but  four  or  five  weeks  ago  ;  his 
voice,  his  smile,  his  figure,  all  are  distinct  before  me.  This 
is  the  every-day  mystery  of  life,  that  those  we  value  so 
highly  vanish  like  a  dream." 

But  if  in  the  circles  of  friendship  Professor  Gam- 
mell's  nature  showed  its  capacity  for  large  and  gen- 
erous affections,  in  the  sacredness  of  home  that  na- 
ture displayed  still  more  its  affluent  tenderness  and 
beauty.  The  delight  in  children  and  grandchildren 
was  a  constant  brightness  in  his  life.  He  used  to 
say  that  he  thought  it  the  highest  privilege  that 
he  could  live  to  see  a  third  generation  growing  up 
around  him.  The  birth  of  a  grandchild  always 
stirred  in  him  new  thoughts  of  tenderness.  For 
his  children  his  love  took  on  often  the  shape  of  a 
solicitude  which  seemed  to  brood  over  every  interest 
of  their  lives.  He  delighted  in  their  society.  His 
native  cheerfulness  of  temperament  kept  itself  fresh 
and  hearty  by  his  sympathy  with  them.  When,  in 
1887,  his  son  Arthur,  a  promising  student  of  law  in 
Harvard  University,  died,  the  bereavement,  though 
accepted  in  all  the  meekness  of  Christian  resigna- 
tion, was  an  anguish  to  his  spirit  which  only  those 
near  him  ever  knew.  Outwardly  calm,  his  suffering 
was  like  the  quiet  of  those  still,  dark  waters  which 
sunlight  does  not  pierce,  and  far  below  the  surface 
of  which  we  know  are  unsounded  depths. 

Any  memorial  of  Professor  Gammell  which  did 
not  advert  to  the  happiness  of  his  home-life  would 
be  greatly  wanting.  It  was  what  he  emphasized  as 
the  token  of  a  "  gracious  loving -kindness  in  his 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  85 

Heavenly  Father  towards  him."  Those  who  ever 
shared  the  hospitality  of  that  beautiful  home  by 
the  sea,  at  Newport,  will  readily  recall  the  cheerful, 
bright  look  as  he  sat  at  his  table,  or  as  he  walked 
upon  the  lawn  by  the  shore,  looking  out  upon  the 
sweep  of  waters.  For  thirty-eight  years  that  home 
gave  him  "  sympathy  in  his  aims  and  labors."  It 
gave  him  rest.  It  gave  him  in  the  growth  of  his 
children  an  ever  present  joy.  The  letters  of  those 
thirty-eight  years  show  how  perfect  was  the  union 
of  hearts.  A  sacred  reserve  forbids  lengthened  allu- 
sions to  the  inner  life  of  that  home  ;  but  how  ample 
and  rich  were  its  blessings  for  him  his  own  expres- 
sions tenderly  record. 

His  religious  character  was  decided  and  deep.  He 
had  an  unquestioning  faith  in  the  great  verities  of 
the  Christian  revelation.  It  was  not  only  unshaken 
by  all  the  modern  assaults  on  Christianity,  but  grew 
in  strength  and  determination  to  the  last.  His  re- 
ligious life  was  inward,  meditative,  averse  to  all  pe- 
riodical excitements  or  enthusiasms,  but  pronounced 
in  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  in  the  worship 
of  the  sanctuary,  and  in  the  training  of  his  house- 
hold. On  a  regular  and  devout  family  worship 
he  set  the  highest  value,  and  visitors  at  his  home 
will  recall  the  fervency  and  aptness  of  his  prayers 
at  the  household  altar.  That  service  he  never  al- 
lowed to  be  hurried  nor  lightly  performed.  "  He 
was,"  said  the  Rev.  Dr.  Caldwell  in  the  singularly 
just  and  beautiful  tribute  to  his  memory  published 
in  the  "  Providence  Journal,"  just  after  his  death, 


86  MEMORIAL. 

"  a  man  averse  to  pretense,  sham,  indirection,  mere 
rhetoric,  and  yet  he  had  no  tolerance  for  anything 
like  impropriety,  vulgarity,  low  tone,  in  religious  ser- 
vice. He  cared  most  for  what  is  true  and  spiritual, 
and  yet  he  wanted  the  outward  observance  worthy 
of  the  humble,  devout,  adoring  spirit.  He  learned 
the  way  of  faith  in  his  father's  house,  and  he  con- 
tinued in  it  to  the  end  of  his  days,  unseduced,  un- 
shaken by  any  doubt.  In  the  familiar  intercourse 
of  more  than  thirty  years  I  never  discovered  any 
wavering  in  the  confidence  of  his  faith.  His  views 
were  large  enough  and  liberal  enough,  but  his  sim- 
ple trust  in  Jesus  Christ  and  belief  in  the  gospel 
and  kingdom  of  God  were  never  disturbed."  He 
was  always  glad  to  have  conversation  take  a  reli- 
gious turn.  It  was  natural  for  him  to  speak  of  re- 
ligious themes,  for  they  interested  him  deeply.  On 
one  occasion  he  remarked  to  a  friend  that  he  "  was 
sorry  there  was  so  little  doctrinal  preaching.  The 
laity  needed  instruction  on  such  themes."  Indeed, 
the  sermons  which  interested  and  held  him  were  ser- 
mons unfolding  Christian  truth  to  the  understand- 
ing. He  distrusted  the  hortatory  appeals  except  in 
special  cases,  and  when  supported  by  a  previous 
convincing  exhibition  of  solid  teaching.  For  every- 
thing that  trenched  on  the  dignity  of  the  pulpit, 
for  everything  that  bordered  on  the  flippant  or  the 
coarse  in  pulpit  teaching,  he  manifested  a  hearty 
disgust. 

Both  by  hereditary  ties  and  by  firm  conviction 
he  was  a  Baptist.     But  no  man  was  more  catholic 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  87 

in  his  religious  sympathies.  He  had  the  widest  in- 
terest in  the  growth  of  Christ's  kingdom,  and  could 
not  tolerate  any  sectarianism  which  did  not  rejoice 
in  all  victories  for  that  kingdom  gained  by  any  body 
of  Christian  disciples.  He  was  a  worshipper  fre- 
quently in  other  sanctuaries  than  those  of  his  own 
denomination,  and  his  tolerance  was  as  marked  as 
was  his  quiet  devotion  to  his  own  church. 

Professor  J.  L.  Lincoln,  who  has  delineated  so 
admirably  Professor  Gammell's  career  in  the  Uni- 
versity, has  also  sketched  his  connection  with  the 
First  Baptist  Church  of  Providence  :  — 

"  You  requested  me  to  add  to  my  recollections  of  Pro- 
fessor Gammell's  relations  to  the  college  Faculty  a  men- 
tion of  his  relations  to  the  First  Baptist  Church  and  So- 
ciety of  this  city.  Gladly  do  I  accede  to  this  request,  as 
it  is  in  the  spirit  and  conduct  with  which  he  maintained 
these  relations  that  the  best  qualities  of  his  character 
found  their  crowning  illustration  and  influence.  I  have 
spoken  of  his  loyalty  as  a  son  of  this  college,  the  place  of 
his  education.  This  virtue  of  his  character  shone  forth 
yet  more  conspicuously  in  a  devotion  to  yet  higher  in- 
terests than  those  of  education  and  good  learning,  —  the 
interests  of  the  Christian  religion  and  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ.  In  his  youth  he  confessed  by  baptism  his  faith 
in  Christ  and  Christianity,  and  this  faith  grew  with  his 
growth  and  strengthened  with  his  strength  to  mature 
manhood  and  age.  He  was  a  member  of  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church  from  1837  to  his  death,  a  period  of  fifty-two 
years  ;  and  for  a  still  longer  period  —  for  sixty-two  years, 
if  we  begin  with  1827,  when  he  entered  college  —  he  was  a 
devout  attendant  upon  its  services.  For  six  years  he  was 
a  superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school,  and  for  a  much 


88  MEMORIAL. 

longer  time  he  was  teacher  of  one  of  the  Bible  classes. 
He  rendered  most  valuable  service  in  promoting  in  the 
church  the  interests  of  foreign  missions,  by  his  personal 
efforts  to  increase  its  contributions  to  this  cause,  and  also 
by  his  addresses  at  its  missionary  meetings.  A  like  ac- 
tive and  useful  part  Professor  Gamtnell  bore  in  the  pro- 
motion of  the  secular  and  financial  interests  of  the  church, 
as  a  pew  proprietor  and  member  of  the  Charitable  Bap- 
tist Society.  On  important  committees  he  shared  with 
his  colleagues  responsible  trusts  of  the  Society,  and  gave 
to  it,  in  its  deliberations  and  acts,  the  aid  of  his  counsels, 
and  contributed  generously  on  all  occasions  when  its 
finances  needed  aid.  The  records  of  the  Society  for  more 
than  a  generation  are  full  of  evidence  of  his  efficient 
labors  in  furthering  all  that  pertained  to  its  progress. 
His  death  was  felt  to  be  a  great  loss  to  the  Society  as  well 
as  to  the  church ;  and  it  was  meet  that,  on  the  day  of  the 
funeral,  the  services  should  be  held  in  the  meeting-house 
where  he  had  worshipped  for  more  than  half  a  century, 
and  that  from  that  sacred  place  his  remains  should  be 
borne  to  their  last  rest." 

The  features  of  Professor  GammelTs  religious 
life,  so  well  delineated  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thayer  in 
the  tribute  he  has  prepared,  will  be  recognized  by 
all  who  knew  him.  His  independence  of  spirit  was 
one  of  his  more  prominent  characteristics.  When- 
ever manifested,  it  was  always  maintained  with  just 
deference  to  the  opinions  and  feelings  of  others.  It 
added  strength  to  his  influence,  and  while  it  ac- 
cented his  individuality,  as  Dr.  Thayer  says,  it  never 
isolated  him  from  his  fellow-Christians  or  from  his 
associates  in  the  work  of  life. 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  89 

NEWPORT,  March  15, 1890. 

I  have  been  asked  to  join  in  a  testimonial  to  Professor 
Gammell.  My  increasing  intercourse  with  him  of  late 
years,  has  made  me  feel  his  loss  too  much  not  to  comply 
with  the  request.  One  shrinks  from  a  formal  tribute 
to  a  friend.  Yet  it  is  a  real  tribute  which  I  pay  Pro- 
fessor Gammell  in  saying  that  through  all  the  changes 
about  him  he  preserved  his  identity.  For  all  agree  that 
a  wonderful  process  of  assimilation  is  going  on,  and  every- 
body is  becoming  like  everybody  else.  Perpetual  con- 
tacts with  all  sorts  of  people  are  unconscious  attritions 
that  rub  down  personal  peculiarities  to  an  uninteresting 
sameness.  Fashionable  life  renders  its  votaries  indis- 
tinguishable by  the  enamel  it  puts  on  them.  Politics 
bring  men  into  disgusting  resemblance,  while  our  litera- 
ture of  all  kinds  is  strangely  alike,  and  forms  its  readers 
to  its  own  average.  What  wonder,  then,  that  men  lose  or 
greatly  qualify  their  identities,  that  colleges  are  conform- 
ing to  the  pattern  of  the  age,  and  that  presidents  and  pro- 
fessors are  becoming  like  the  rest  of  mankind,  —  the  pres- 
idents largely  employed  in  collecting  funds,  and  the 
professors  no  longer  living  and  working  in  the  college 
only,  but  playing  the  scholar  in  politics  and  acting  in 
peripatetic  universities?  But  Professor  Gammell  was 
wholly  formed  in  Brown  University  when  —  defects  and 
all  —  it  was  the  old  American  college,  and  his  life  was 
concentrated  there  with  singular  devotion.  That  cast  of 
character  he  never  lost.  Not  obtrusively,  but  decidedly, 
it  impressed  you,  and  it  was  easy  to  conceive  of  him  as 
in  the  class-room.  His  opinions  were  positive  and  given 
emphatically,  but  not  offensively  ex  cathedra.  He  loved 
racy  good  English,  taught  it  and  used  it,  though  I  doubt 
not  he  exercised  literary  charity  for  his  pupils  and  friends 
who  have  come  to  prefer  poets  and  thinkers  whose  mean- 


90  MEMORIAL. 

ing  is  not  plain  to  their  readers,  nor  probably  was  to 
themselves. 

Professor  Gammell  lived  on  the  verge  of  fashion,  yet 
had  no  heart  for  it,  but  cultivated  the  society  of  scholars 
and  Christian  gentlemen,  who,  among  others,  sometimes 
visit  Newport.  His  own  religious  convictions  were  quiet, 
but  assured,  and  he  never  failed  in  his  testimony  to  the 
truth.  Fully  recognizing  other  Christian  communions, 
he  was  faithful  to  his  own,  and  his  pen  vindicated  the 
claims  of  its  worthies  to  the  esteem  of  mankind.  So  he 
did  not  accept  dilutions  of  doctrines,  nor  look  with  favor 
on  Christianity  held  in  solution,  but  believed  and  loved 
the  simple,  strong  faith  of  his  fathers.  If  some  of  his 
friends  advanced  towards  a  Protestant  purgatory,  or  fa- 
vored those  who  did,  Professor  Gammell,  without  inter- 
rupting his  friendship,  did  not  accompany  them,  since, 
trusting  in  the  sufficiency  of  Christ's  atonement  and  the 
abounding  grace  of  God  to  his  own  soul,  he  was  not  wont 
to  look  for  *  another  probation.'  He  gloried  in  the  work 
of  missions,  and  found,  as  others  do,  chiefest  hope  for 
man  in  their  progress.  As  years  passed  on,  and  from  his 
quiet  life  he  looked  out  on  the  great  world,  his  thoughts 
grew  more  massive  with  ideas  of  God  and  Law  and  Prov- 
idence, and  his  heart  more  responsive  to  Christ  and  his 
gospel.  And  then  sorrow  which  '  comes  to  all '  came  to 
him.  Very  great  was  the  disappointment  in  the  loss  of  a 
most  promising  young  life,  exceeding  dear  to  a  father's 
heart,  —  very  sad  the  loneliness.  Old  age  feels  more 
deeply  than  youth.  But  Professor  Gammell  bowed  him- 
self humbly,  and  those  who  saw  him  in  private  felt  a 
chastened,  mellowed  tone  that  told  of  a  blessed  work 
within. 

Very  painful  this  breaking  up  of  such  a  circle  as  ex- 
isted in  Brown.  Yet  very  pleasant  to  recollect  them  as 
with  varying  gifts  and  genial  feelings  they  pass  before 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  91 

the  mind.    Not  the  least  worthy  of  affectionate  memory 
was  the  subject  of  this  notice. 

Yours,  sincerely,  T.  THATER. 

Professor  GammelTs  closing  years  were  full  of 
vigor.  In  1887  he  showed  some  signs  of  failure. 
He  seemed  far  from  well.  His  striking  personal 
presence,  erect  form,  and  bright  eye  were  still  ob- 
served, but  there  was  less  elasticity  in  his  step  and 
less  vivacity  in  his  conversation.  From  all  this,  how- 
ever, he  rallied,  and  his  health  had  been  exception- 
ally good  through  the  winter  of  1888-9.  He  was 
never  more  cheerful,  and  never  entered  with  more 
zest  into  life.  He  was  seen,  as  of  old,  taking  the 
familiar  walks,  delighted  most  if  some  companion 
would  share  them  with  him.  But  the  end  was  un- 
consciously drawing  nigh.  On  Tuesday  evening, 
March  26,  he  attended  the  monthly  meeting  of  the 
Historical  Society,  presiding  as  usual,  and  entering 
with  his  accustomed  spirit  into  all  the  exercises. 
On  the  day  following,  a  meeting  of  the  Corporation 
of  the  University  was  held  to  consider  and  act  upon 
the  resignation  of  the  office  of  President  by  Dr. 
Robinson.  He  took  an  active  part  in  the  counsels 
of  the  occasion,  making  one  of  his  felicitous  ad- 
dresses. The  long  continued  strain  of  the  meeting, 
without  his  usual  meal  in  the  middle  of  the  day, 
perhaps  with  some  exposure  to  a  biting  wind  in  a 
long  walk  taken  after  adjournment,  seemed  to  ex- 
haust him.  On  Thursday  he  was  confined  to  the 
house.  During  Friday  and  Saturday  he  resumed 


92  MEMORIAL. 

his  usual  course  of  life.  On  Sunday,  however, 
pneumonia  set  in.  "  I  am  taken  sick,"  he  said  to 
his  wife,  "  on  the  anniversary  of  our  son's  death." 
For  a  while  the  doctor  encouraged  hope  of  re- 
covery. Some  days  later,  in  the  morning,  having 
heen  refreshed  by  an  ice-bath,  he  was  lifted  from 
his  bed  to  the  couch,  and  asked  for  the  "  Providence 
Journal."  He  turned  to  the  account  of  the  Histor- 
ical Society's  recent  meeting.  It  was  the  last  act  of 
the  Christian  scholar,  but  characteristic  of  his  schol- 
arly habits.  He  soon  showed  signs  of  growing 
weakness,  and  none  more  clearly,  none  so  calmly, 
recognized  the  approaching  end.  With  undimmed 
intelligence  and  perfect  serenity  of  spirit,  he  ex- 
pressed his  trust  in  the  Redeemer,  as  one  who  knew 
Him  whom  he  had  believed,  and  was  persuaded  that 
He  was  able  to  keep  that  committed  to  Him  against 
that  day.  On  the  morning  of  the  day  before  he 
died,  he  said  to  his  devoted  wife,  "  I  am  spared  to 
you  one  day  more  ; "  and  it  was  touching,  during  his 
last  illness,  to  hear  him  "  rejoice  that  he  was  taken 
first,"  and  was  not  to  be  left  as  the  survivor  of  his 
beloved  wife.  He  made  all  the  arrangements  for  his 
funeral,  enjoining  the  utmost  simplicity  in  all  the 
services.  Life  drew  gently,  but  swiftly,  to  its  close. 
He  died  on  April  3,  1889,  in  his  seventy-eighth 
year. 

His  funeral  took  place  on  the  following  Saturday, 
April  6,  from  the  First  Baptist  Church,  where  for 
sixty-two  years  he  had  been  a  worshipper.  His  pas- 
tor, the  Rev.  Edwin  Brown,  D.  D.,  read  selections 


WILLIAM  GAMMELL.  93 

from  the  Holy  Scriptures.  His  friend  of  thirty  years, 
who  had  also  been  his  pastor,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel 
L.  Caldwell,  since  "  passed  into  the  world  of  light," 
made  the  prayer.  And  then  he  was  buried  in  the 
beautiful  cemetery  of  Swan  Point,  close  by  the  grave 
of  his  son  Arthur. 

A  few  months  later  came  the  Commencement  of 
the  University.  For  more  than  half  a  century  his 
presence  had  added  to  the  life  and  interest  of  the 
academic  gathering.  With  possibly  two  or  three 
exceptions  he  had  always  been  there  to  greet  the 
old  graduates.  He  loved  the  occasion  consecrated 
to  college  memories  and  to  the  interests  of  good 
learning.  All  his  love  for  the  college  then  shone 
conspicuous.  As  the  groups  of  returning  alumni 
assembled,  his  name  was  mentioned,  his  labors 
were  recalled,  his  long  and  faithful  devotion  to 
the  honored  Alma  Mater  was  rehearsed,  and  the 
general  grief  that  they  "  should  see  his  face  no 
more "  found  ready  utterance.  And  when,  in  the 
course  of  the  Commencement  festivities,  the  alumni 
assembled  in  their  annual  session,  the  desire  of  all 
hearts  was  met  in  the  adoption  of  a  minute  on  his 
death.  This  biographical  and  memorial  sketch,  pre- 
pared by  a  grateful  pupil,  is  best  concluded  by  the 
graceful  appreciative  testimony  of  this  minute  to 
the  exalted  character  and  services  of  Professor 
Gammell :  — 

"  It  is  with  profound  sorrow  and  a  sense  of  great  loss 
that  the  members  of  the  Alumni  Association,  assembled 
at  their  annual  meeting,  record  the  death  of  Professor 


94  MEMORIAL. 

Gammell,  of  the  class  of  1831.  He  will  be  sadly  missed 
this  week  at  the  college  anniversary  occasions,  public  and 
social,  which  for  so  many  years  he  has  always  attended, 
and  to  which  his  dignity  of  presence  and  gracious  man- 
ners have  always  lent  distinction.  For  more  than  sixty 
years,  the  period  which  covers  his  undergraduate  and  his 
subsequent  professional  life,  and  during  which  he  has  re- 
sided in  Providence,  and  sustained  intimate  relations  to 
the  college,  his  name  has  been  honorably  associated  with 
its  prosperity  and  progress.  We  recall  with  gratitude 
the  valuable  services  which  he  has  rendered  as  a  college 
instructor  in  rhetoric  and  English  literature,  and  in  his- 
tory and  political  economy,  bringing  to  these  departments 
unusual  qualifications  by  his  literary  tastes  and  attain- 
ments, and  by  his  zealous  pursuit  of  historical  studies ; 
promoting  in  the  one,  by  his  rhetorical  instruction  and 
lectures  and  by  his  discriminating  criticism  of  rhetorical 
exercises,  the  literary  culture  of  his  pupils  and  the  liter- 
ary character  and  reputation  of  the  college,  and  by  his 
intelligent  and  faithful  work  in  the  other,  inaugurating 
an  era  of  historical  instruction  and  study  which  has  been 
most  worthily  perpetuated  by  his  successors.  Many  are 
the  classes,  many  the  students,  of  our  University  who  will 
ever  cherish  his  name  and  the  influence  of  his  teaching 
among  the  choicest  memories  of  their  college  life.  We 
recall,  too,  the  services  which  he  rendered,  after  his  re- 
tirement from  the  Faculty,  by  his  counsel  and  action  as 
a  member  for  eighteen  years  of  the  Board  of  Fellows  of 
the  University.  But,  devoted  though  he  was  with  a  loyal 
affection  to  his  Alma  Mater,  his  labors  were  not  confined 
to  his  offices  of  trust  in  her  service.  As  a  citizen  he  took 
a  generous  and  active  interest  in  good  learning  and  lib- 
eral education  everywhere,  and  in  all  worthy  enterprises 
in  philanthropy,  morals,  and  religion  which  advanced  the 
progress  in  this  country  and  the  world  of  a  truly  Christian 


WILLIAM   GAMMELL.  95 

civilization.  And  with  all  these  remembrances  of  Pro- 
fessor Gammell's  various  and  useful  labors  we  gladly  as- 
sociate our  recollections  of  those  sterling  qualities  of  his 
personal  character  and  life  which  won  for  him  the  respect 
and  affection  of  his  numerous  friends." 


HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 


SAMUEL  WARD,  GOVERNOR  OF  RHODE 
ISLAND.1 

I. 

THE  generation  who  peopled  New  England  during  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  witnesses  of  a  se- 
ries of  events  whose  importance  in  shaping  the  subsequent 
character  and  the  ultimate  destiny  of  the  colonies  can 
scarcely  be  estimated  too  highly.  It  was  the  age  in  which 
was  brought  to  a  close  the  protracted  struggle  between 
England  and  France  for  ascendency  upon  this  continent ; 
in  which  were  suffered  the  worst  evils  of  the  ill-devised 
legislation  of  the  Parliament,  and  the  earliest  aggressions 
of  the  British  ministry  upon  the  rights  of  the  colonies ; 
and  in  which  were  seen  the  first  acts  of  resistance  that 
terminated  at  length  in  the  war  of  American  indepen- 
dence. To  this  generation  belonged  Governor  Samuel 
Ward,  the  subject  of  the  present  sketch ;  and  in  the  col- 
ony with  which  he  was  connected  he  was  among  the 
foremost  of  the  patriotic  actors  in  the  stirring  scenes  of 
the  age. 

He  was  descended  from  an  ancient  and  respectable 
family,  of  which  the  first  representative  in  this  country 
was  his  grandfather,  Thomas  Ward,  who  came  to  New- 
port, Rhode  Island,  soon  after  the  restoration  of  Charles 
the  Second.  In  England  he  had  been  attached  to  the 
republican  party,  and  had  been  somewhat  conversant  with 
the  affairs  of  the  Commonwealth.  He  was  highly  re- 
spected in  the  colony,  to  which  he  rendered  many  valuable 
1  Reprinted  from  Sparks's  American  Biography. 


100  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

services,  both  as  a  private  citizen  and  as  a  member,  at  dif- 
ferent times,  of  both  branches  of  the  colonial  legislature. 
Thomas  Ward  died  in  1689,  leaving  a  second  wife,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Amy  Smith,  and  their  only  child, 
Richard  Ward,  who  was  born  a  few  months  before  his 
father's  death.  Richard  Ward,  the  father  of  the  subject 
of  this  memoir,  on  attaining  to  manhood,  was  an  active 
and  exemplary  citizen  of  Newport,  engaged  in  commerce, 
and  devoting  much  attention  to  the  affairs  of  the  colony, 
in  whose  service  he  was  distinguished  for  his  fidelity  and 
probity  of  character.  He  was  for  several  years  Recorder, 
or  Secretary  of  State,  and  afterwards  Deputy-Governor, 
of  Rhode  Island,  and  was  twice  elected  to  the  office  of 
Governor,  in  1741  and  1742  ;  after  which  he  declined  a 
reelection,  and  retired  to  private  life. 

Samuel  Ward,  the  second  son  of  Richard,  was  born  at 
Newport,  on  the  27th  of  May,  1725.  His  mind  was  early 
subjected  to  the  discipline  of  that  best  kind  of  education, 
which  arises  from  the  associations  of  a  well-regulated 
family  circle,  of  cultivated  manners  and  liberal  tastes. 
He  was  also  sent  to  a  grammar  school  in  his  native  town, 
which  in  its  day  maintained  a  high  celebrity  as  one  of  the 
best  schools  in  the  country.  Here,  aided,  as  is  probable, 
by  the  instructions  of  his  elder  brother,  Thomas,  who 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1733,  he  passed  through 
a  course  of  study  which  was  probably  more  than  usually 
extensive  and  thorough  for  one  not  destined  for  either  of 
the  learned  professions. 

For  a  considerable  period  prior  to  the  American  Revo- 
lution, the  ancient  town  of  Newport  was  among  the  most 
flourishing  commercial  towns  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  Its 
capacious  harbor  made  it  the  resort  of  much  of  the  for- 
eign shipping  that  visited  the  colonies.  The  enterprise  of 
its  inhabitants  had  embarked  in  nearly  every  branch  of 
colonial  trade,  while  the  salubrity  of  its  climate  and  the 


SAMUEL    WARD.  101 

surpassing  beauty  of  its  ocean  scenery  were  already  attract- 
ing temporary  visitors  from  less  favored  climes,  and  making 
it  what  it  has  since  become,  the  most  delightful  watering 
place  upon  the  continent.  Amidst  its  external  prosperity 
and  its  intimate  relations  with  the  mother  country,  the 
society  of  the  town  is  said  to  have  been  distinguished  for 
its  polished  manners  and  the  intellectual  spirit  with  which 
it  was  pervaded. 

Here  the  philosopher  Berkeley  passed  two  years  in  ma- 
turing his  generous  plans  for  civilizing  the  Indians  and 
educating  young  men  of  the  colonies  for  the  ministry  of 
the  gospel.  This  eminent  man  was  much  in  the  society 
of  the  town,  and  for  a  time  assisted  the  rector  of  the  Epis- 
copal parish  in  the  performance  of  his  parochial  duties. 
His  active  and  generous  spirit,  enriched  as  it  was  by  the 
most  liberal  culture  and  the  noblest  benevolence,  must 
have  exerted  a  controlling  influence  over  every  circle  in 
which  he  moved.  While  residing  at  Newport,  Berkeley  is 
said  to  have  composed  his  "  Minute  Philosopher,"  the  most 
finished  and  the  most  enduring  of  all  his  writings,  which 
has  forever  linked  his  name  with  the  quiet  shores  of  the 
beautiful  island  which  was  then  his  home.  He  also 
founded  a  literary  and  social  club,  made  up  of  the  gentle- 
men of  the  town,  which,  no  doubt,  was  instrumental  in 
elevating  its  character,  and  promoting  a  unity  of  feeling 
in  relation  to  subjects  of  general  concern.  From  this 
association,  whose  object  was  "the  promotion  of  know- 
ledge and  virtue,"  at  a  subsequent  period  sprang  the  Red- 
wood Library,  which,  had  it  been  earlier  started,  would 
doubtless  have  received  from  Bishop  Berkeley  the  valua- 
ble collection  of  books  which,  on  leaving  Rhode  Island, 
in  1731,  he  distributed  among  the  clergymen  of  the  col- 
ony and  presented  to  the  colleges  at  Cambridge  and  at 
New  Haven. 

In  the  midst  of  a  community  whose  social  and  literary 


102  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

character  was  expanded  by  influences  like  these,  Samuel 
Ward  passed  his  boyhood  and  youth,  enjoying,  in  addition, 
the  best  advantages  for  a  common  education  which  the 
colony  in  that  age  could  afford.  He  is  believed  to  have 
devoted  himself  to  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  with 
earnest  diligence,  and  to  have  derived  from  the  advan- 
tages which  he  enjoyed  what  for  the  time  was  considered 
a  remarkably  good  education.  His  father  had  long  been 
extensively  engaged  in  navigation,  and  was  at  the  head 
of  a  trading  house  in  Newport.  He  was  also  possessed 
of  considerable  estates  in  King's  County,  on  the  opposite 
shore  of  Narragansett  Bay,  which  had  also  received  a 
share  of  his  personal  attention.  To  the  charge  of  the 
same  interests  Governor  Richard  Ward  directed  the  at- 
tention of  his  second  son  ;  and,  by  the  time  he  had  reached 
his  majority,  he  had  become  conversant  with  the  business 
alike  of  a  merchant  and  of  a  farmer.  He  married,  in 
early  life,  Anne  Ray,  the  daughter  of  a  respectable  far- 
mer of  Block  Island,  and  soon  after  removed  to  Westerly, 
and  settled  on  a  farm,  which  he  received  from  his  father- 
in-law  as  the  dower  of  his  wife.1 

Here,  in  a  secluded  portion  of  the  colony  of  Rhode 
Island,  Mr.  Ward  entered  upon  the  duties  of  manhood, 
on  a  quiet  plantation,  which  by  his  industry  and  judicious 
expenditures  he  soon  formed  into  a  valuable  and  beautiful 
estate.  In  accordance  with  the  hereditary  custom  of  his 
family,  he  also  kept  a  store  in  the  town  of  Westerly,  and 
was  often  engaged  in  commerce  both  at  Newport  and  at 
Stonington.  In  all  these  enterprises  he  was  blessed  with 

1  This  lady  was  an  elder  sister  of  "  Catherine  Ray  of  Block  Island," 
whose  name  frequently  appears  among  the  correspondents  of  Dr. 
Franklin,  and  to  whom  he  addressed  some  of  the  sprightliest  of  his 
familiar  letters.  See  Sparks's  Franklin,  vol.  vii.  pp.  85  et  seq. 
The  incidents  referred  to  in  the  letter  on  the  eighty-fifth  page  must 
have  occurred  while  both  Dr.  Franklin  and  Miss  Ray  were  on  a  visit 
at  Mr.  Ward's  in  Westerly. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  103 

a  good  degree  of  prosperity,  and  early  became  possessed 
of  such  pecuniary  means  as  rendered  him  independent  of 
personal  labor,  and  enabled  him  to  devote  his  time  and 
energies  to  the  interests  of  his  native  colony,  whose  ser- 
vice was  soon  to  demand  the  most  patriotic  exertions  of 
all  her  sons.  Though  living  in  retirement,  he  did  not 
withhold  his  attention  from  the  public  events  which  took 
place  around  him  ;  and,  as  the  subsequent  course  of  this 
memoir  will  show,  he  was  always  sagacious  in  apprehend- 
ing the  questions  at  issue,  and  among  the  foremost  in 
advocating,  both  in  private  circles  and  in  the  public  offices 
with  which  he  was  intrusted,  the  interests  of  justice,  and 
truth,  and  freedom. 

For  a  considerable  period  after  his  settlement  at  Wes- 
terly, Mr.  Ward  appears  to  have  devoted  his  principal 
attention  to  the  improvement  of  his  estate  and  the  prose- 
cution of  the  commerce  in  which  he  had  embarked.  He 
studied  agriculture  as  a  liberal  art,  and  soon  became  dis- 
tinguished among  his  neighbors  for  the  success  with  which 
he  applied  its  principles.  He  gave  much  attention  to  the 
improvement  of  the  several  breeds  of  domestic  animals 
with  which  his  farm  was  stocked,  and  was  particularly 
celebrated  for  the  specimens  he  raised  of  the  Narragan- 
sett  pony,  a  race  of  horses  which  has  now  become  entirely 
extinct,  but  which  in  that  day  constituted  a  leading  article 
of  export  from  the  colony,  and  was  greatly  admired  for 
the  ease  and  fleetness  of  its  movements. 

According  to  the  traditions  which  are  still  preserved  in 
Rhode  Island,  the  farmers  of  the  Narragansett  country, 
for  a  long  period  before  the  Revolution,  were  generally 
men  of  a  superior  intelligence  and  a  higher  breeding  than 
were  often  to  be  found  in  their  brethren  of  the  other  agri- 
cultural districts  of  New  England.  Many  emigrants  of 
considerable  fortune,  who  had  come  to  this  country  in  the 
early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  had  been  attracted 


104  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

to  the  beautiful  and  fertile  farms  which  skirt  the  western 
shores  of  Narragansett  Bay,  and  had  planted  there  a  large 
though  scattered  community,  distinguished  for  intelligent 
enterprise,  for  accomplished  manners,  and  for  elegant 
hospitality.  The  mode  of  life  then  prevalent  there  com- 
bined much  of  the  quiet  and  simplicity  of  the  country  with 
many  of  the  characteristics  of  a  commercial  town.  The 
distinctions  of  master  and  slave  were  still  maintained ; 
and  negroes,  most  of  whom  were  in  servitude,  and  who 
then  constituted  nearly  one  tenth  of  the  population  of  the 
colony,  were  to  be  seen  in  great  numbers  on  every  large 
estate.  These  features  suggest  to  us  a  conception  of  agri- 
cultural life  and  of  social  relations  such  as  would,  per- 
haps, best  be  realized  in  our  own  day  among  the  planta- 
tions of  some  of  the  upper  counties  of  Virginia. 

In  retiring  thus  to  the  country,  Mr.  Ward  by  no  means 
withdrew  from  the  intellectual  activity  and  cultivated 
society  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed  at  Newport. 
There  were  living  around  him  some  of  the  leading  men 
of  the  colony,  whose  companionship,  not  only  in  his  own 
chosen  pursuit  of  agriculture,  but  in  every  other  sphere 
of  life,  was  fitted  to  improve,  as  well  as  gratify,  an  in- 
telligent young  man.  These  persons  formed  themselves 
into  a  club  for  social  intercourse  and  intellectual  improve- 
ment, and  were  accustomed  to  meet  at  each  other's  houses, 
to  bring  together  at  the  festive  board  the  results  of  their 
reading  or  experience,  and  to  discuss  the  public  events 
which  were  then  beginning  to  assume  an  unwonted  im- 
portance. 

In  this  manner,  interrupted  only  by  occasional  visits  to 
Newport,  and  more  rarely  to  Boston  and  New  York,  Mr. 
Ward  passed  the  years  of  his  early  manhood.  Living 
upon  his  own  well-ordered  estate,  from  which,  with  a 
grateful  spirit,  he  received  the  bounties  of  Providence, 
surrounded  by  his  family  and  in  the  midst  of  congenial 


SAMUEL    WARD.  105 

neighbors  and  friends,  he  stands  out  in  the  foreground 
of  a  picture  which  any  man  might  well  aspire  to  realize. 
From  this  retirement,  however,  he  was  soon  to  be  sum- 
moned forth  to  mingle  in  the  agitating  politics  of  the  day ; 
and,  after  engaging  in  the  fiercest  strifes  of  the  politician, 
and  reaping  all  his  ephemeral  honors,  he  was  at  length  to 
act  an  heroic  part  in  the  opening  drama  of  the  Revolution. 

His  first  appearance  in  the  public  service  of  the  colony 
was  in  1756,  when  he  was  elected  to  the  General  As- 
sembly, as  a  deputy  or  representative  from  the  town  of 
Westerly  ;  a  post  which  he  continued  to  occupy  with  but 
a  slight  interruption  till  May,  1759.  In  that  early  time 
the  legislature  of  Rhode  Island,  though  not  inferior  to 
other  similar  bodies  either  in  the  dignity  of  its  forms  or 
in  the  variety  of  the  powers  which  it  exercised,  yet  pre- 
sented but  a  limited  theatre  for  public  debate.  Its  mem- 
bers were  always  few  in  number,  and,  being  elected  twice 
every  year,  they  brought  with  them  to  its  councils  the 
fullest  sense  of  the  popular  wishes  respecting  nearly  every 
public  measure.  Hence  their  sessions  were  short,  and 
their  acts  were  usually  passed  with  but  little  debate.  In 
the  proceedings  of  the  Assembly  Mr.  Ward  appears  im- 
mediately to  have  taken  an  active  part ;  and,  though  prob- 
ably one  of  the  youngest  of  its  members,  he  early  won  for 
himself  a  wide  and  commanding  influence.  The  frequent 
recurrence  of  his  name  upon  the  pages  of  its  records  in- 
dicates how  intimately  he  was  connected  with  the  most 
important  public  measures  which  occupied  its  attention. 

The  irregular  contest  between  England  and  France, 
which  had  been  waged  for  more  than  two  years  in  their 
respective  colonies,  had  now  broken  out  into  an  open  war, 
which  was  declared  on  the  part  of  England  in  May  of  the 
same  year ;  and  the  several  colonies  were  preparing  to  en- 
gage in  it  with  their  utmost  zeal.  A  considerable  number 
of  French  residents  in  Rhode  Island,  who  had  been  seized 


106  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

by  the  colonial  officers  and  thrown  into  the  jails  as  prison- 
ers of  war,  sent  a  petition  to  the  legislature,  praying  for 
their  liberation  and  the  privilege  of  removing  to  some 
neutral  port,  and  claiming  an  exemption,  in  the  mean 
time,  from  the  laws  of  war.  Their  situation  excited  no 
small  interest  among  the  people  of  the  colony,  and  in- 
volved a  principle  which  was  likely  to  prove  important  in 
the  subsequent  progress  of  the  contest.  The  whole  sub- 
ject, when  presented  to  the  legislature,  was  referred  to  a 
committee  of  which  Mr.  Ward  was  a  member,  who  re- 
ported a  bill  authorizing  the  government  to  transport  the 
Frenchmen  in  question  to  some  neutral  port,  but  refusing 
them  any  exemption  from  the  ordinary  fortunes  of  war, 
and  requiring  them  still  to  be  kept  in  jail ;  a  measure 
which  was  doubtless  thought  to  be  necessary  on  account 
of  the  facilities  they  would  possess,  if  set  at  liberty,  of 
giving  information  to  the  king's  enemies. 

Mr.  Ward  was  also  a  member  of  the  committee  for 
levying  the  annual  tax,  and  proportioning  it  to  the  several 
towns  of  the  colony,  a  work  which  was  at  that  time  con- 
sidered among  the  most  difficult  and  embarrassing  of  the 
duties  of  the  legislature.  So  diverse  were  the  interests 
and  the  resources  of  the  several  towns  that  scarcely  a 
year  passed  away  without  occasioning  a  protest  from  some 
of  them  against  the  rates  which  had  been  assessed  ;  the 
agricultural  community  now  insisting  that  the  commercial 
interests  should  bear  a  larger  share  of  the  public  burden, 
and  the  southern  towns  now  complaining  that  the  grow- 
ing capital  of  the  north  was  regarded  by  the  Assembly 
with  too  indulgent  an  eye. 

Another  of  the  services  which  he  rendered  to  the  col- 
ony in  his  capacity  of  legislator  was  in  the  investigations 
he  made  as  a  member  of  the  committee  on  the  violations 
of  the  laws  of  trade.  The  instructions  which  had  been 
received  from  the  king  were  urgent  and  peremptory,  that 


SAMUEL    WARD.  107 

the  Assembly  should  "  pass  effectual  laws  for  prohibiting 
all  trade  and  commerce  with  the  French,  and  for  prevent- 
ing the  exportation  of  provisions  of  all  kinds  to  any  of 
their  islands  or  colonies."  The  existing  colonial  statutes 
for  enforcing  the  Navigation  Acts  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment were  but  slightly  regarded ;  and  an  extensive  con- 
traband trade  was  carried  on  by  merchants  in  all  the 
colonies,  in  defiance  of  the  authority  of  Parliament,  and 
in  most  instances  without  the  interference  of  their  own 
legislatures.  When  the  state  of  the  trade  was  spread  be- 
fore them,  the  General  Assembly,  in  accordance  with  the 
report  of  their  committee,  adopted  such  regulations  as 
were  necessary  in  order  to  comply  with  the  instructions 
of  the  king,  and  in  every  way  in  their  power  prepared 
the  colony  to  engage  in  the  war  as  it  became  true  and 
loyal  subjects. 

It  was  also  during  the  year  1756  that  the  legislature 
of  Rhode  Island  passed  its  first  general  act  for  the  relief 
of  insolvent  debtors.  It  provided  that  persons  who  should 
give  up  their  property  for  the  benefit  of  their  creditors, 
and  make  oath  to  the  fidelity  of  the  surrender,  should  be 
discharged  from  all  claims  preferred  against  them.  The 
law  was  undoubtedly  called  forth  by  a  few  instances  of 
failure,  which,  in  the  distresses  of  the  times,  had  occurred 
among  the  merchants  of  the  colony,  one  of  the  first  and 
the  most  conspicuous  of  which  was  that  of  Mr.  Joseph 
Whipple,  a  merchant  of  Newport,  who  at  the  time  of  his 
failure  held  the  post  of  Deputy-Governor.  The  law  which 
was  then  passed  has  served  as  the  basis  of  all  the  subse- 
quent legislation  upon  the  subject  of  insolvency  in  Rhode 
Island,  and  does  not  differ  very  materially  from  that 
which  is  now  in  force  in  that  state,  and  indeed  in  most  of 
the  other  States  of  the  Union. 

The  war  with  France  was  now  becoming  an  engross- 
ing subject  of  attention  with  all  the  northern  colonies  of 


108  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

America.  It  had  thus  far  been  prolific  of  nothing  but 
disaster  and  disgrace  to  the  English  arms.  The  colonists 
had  engaged  in  it  with  their  utmost  zeal ;  but,  such  was 
the  delay  of  the  ministry,  and  such  the  incapacity  of  the 
generals  who  had  been  sent  to  conduct  it,  that  every  year 
had  witnessed  the  gradual  decline  of  the  English  power 
in  America.  The  French,  on  the  contrary,  were  every 
year  "gaining  ground,  and  were  gradually  encircling  the 
British  possessions  by  the  lengthening  chain  of  their  mili- 
tary posts,  and,  with  the  aid  of  their  Indian  allies,  were 
spreading  terror  and  dismay  through  the  settlements. 

Immediately  on  the  formal  declaration  of  war,  in  1756, 
the  Earl  of  Loudoun  was  sent  to  America  with  a  large 
force,  which,  together  with  such  as  should  be  furnished  by 
the  colonies,  he  was  directed  to  employ  against,  the  French. 
His  arrival  in  America  was  greeted  by  the  several  col- 
onies, and  Mr.  Ward  was  appointed  one  of  a  committee 
to  prepare  an  address  of  welcome  on  the  part  of  Rhode 
Island.  One  of  his  first  acts,  on  assuming  the  command 
of  the  forces,  was  to  levy  four  thousand  troops  from  New 
England  ;  and  of  these  the  proportion  to  be  raised  in 
Rhode  Island  was  four  hundred  and  fifty.  The  troops 
were  raised,  and  were  on  their  march  for  the  rendezvous 
at  Albany  ;  but  the  season  was  too  far  advanced  to  admit 
of  any  effective  operations,  and  they  were  dismissed  at  the 
beginning  of  November  without  having  been  employed  in 
actual  service,  but  were  ordered  to  be  in  readiness  when 
summoned  again  to  the  field  in  the  ensuing  spring. 

It  was  early  evident  that  the  reverses  which  the  Eng- 
lish had  experienced  thus  far  in  the  war  were  not  likely 
to  be  soon  retrieved  by  the  generalship  of  Lord  Loudoun. 
He  appointed  a  convention  of  the  Governors  and  Com- 
missioners of  the  several  colonies  to  be  held  at  Boston,  in 
January,  1757  ;  which  seems  to  have  terminated  only  in 
still  greater  distrust  of  the  military  capacity  of  the  Gen- 


SAMUEL    WARD.  109 

eral-in-chief.  The  colonies,  though  commonly  yielding  a 
ready  compliance  with  the  requisitions  which  were  made 
upon  them,  yet  found  serious  cause  of  complaint  in  the 
unequal  levies  that  were  successively  imposed;  and  the 
troops  themselves  were  unwilling  to  be  mingled  with 
the  British  regulars,  but  demanded  to  be  placed  under 
the  command  of  their  own  officers.  Questions  like  these 
served  only  to  embarrass  the  plans  which  the  commander 
had  set  on  foot,  while,  by  the  distrust  and  apprehension 
which  they  awakened,  they  added  a  deeper  shade  to  the 
general  gloom  which  hung  over  the  colonies. 

Rhode  Island  had  a  deep  interest  in  the  speedy  ter- 
mination of  the  war,  as  well  as  in  all  these  questions  relat- 
ing to  the  terms  of  its  continuance.  She  had  already  lost 
from  ninety  to  one  hundred  vessels  that  had  been  cap- 
tured by  the  enemy,  a  loss,  which,  according  to  a  state- 
ment of  her  Secretary  of  State,  made  in  1758,  was  three 
times  as  great  as  that  of  New  York,  and  four  times  as 
great  as  that  of  Massachusetts.  She  had  added  immensely 
to  her  public  debt ;  and,  in  addition  to  fifteen  hundred 
men,  who  were  engaged  as  privateers  in  the  war,  she  was 
obliged  to  maintain  an  armed  vessel  for  the  protection  of 
her  coast,  and  had  also  furnished  to  the  campaign  of  1757 
not  less  than  a  thousand  men  for  the  service  of  the  king. 
This  was  done  at  a  period  of  gloom  and  dismay,  when  the 
whole  number  of  her  citizens  between  the  ages  of  sixteen 
and  sixty,  then  the  legal  limits  of  military  service,  scarcely 
exceeded  eight  thousand.  It  was  an  effort  scarcely  equalled 
by  that  of  any  other  colony,  for  she  had  nearly  a  third  of 
her  whole  effective  force  in  actual  service  beyond  the 
limits  of  her  own  territory. 

In  the  winter  of  1758,  the  Earl  of  Loudoun,  finding 
himself  still  surrounded  with  difficulties  and  embarrassed 
by  the  jarring  interests  of  the  colonies,  summoned  another 
convention  to  meet  at  Hartford,  in  the  month  of  Febru- 


110  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

ary.  At  this  meeting,  Governor  Greene,  at  that  time  the 
chief  magistrate  of  the  colony,  and  also  Mr.  Ward  and 
Mr.  John  Andrews,  were  appointed  to  represent  Rhode 
Island.  The  commissioners  received  full  and  explicit  in- 
structions from  the  legislature  as  to  the  course  which  they 
were  expected  to  pursue.  In  these  instructions  they  were 
directed,  on  arriving  at  Hartford :  — 

"  1.  To  lay  an  exact  state  of  the  colony  before  his  lord- 
ship with  regard  to  its  fortifications,  cannon,  warlike  and 
military  stores,  the  number  of  inhabitants,  state  of  the 
treasury,  and  funds  for  supplying  the  same. 

"  2.  To  beg  his  lordship  to  lay  the  defenseless  condition 
of  the  colony  before  his  Majesty  in  the  most  favorable 
light. 

"  3.  To  request  his  lordship  to  make  the  colony  such 
an  allowance  for  the  provisions  and  military  stores  fur- 
nished by  this  colony  for  the  two  last  years  as  will  corre- 
spond with  his  Majesty's  gracious  intentions  signified  unto 
us  by  his  Secretary  of  State." 

The  commissioners  were  also  directed  to  "  request  his 
lordship  that  the  forces  raised  by  this  colony  may  be  under 
the  immediate  command  of  their  own  officers,  and  no 
others,  except  the  Commander-in-chief." 

To  these  directions,  which  were  probably  open  to  all 
the  commissioners  who  composed  the  convention,  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  ordered  the  following  to  be  added,  which 
was  to  be  regarded  as  a  private  instruction  for  the  guid- 
ance of  their  representatives  in  adjusting  the  quota  of 
troops,  the  most  difficult  and  delicate  part  of  their  task : 
"  And  as  to  what  aid  or  number  of  men  you  are  em- 
powered by  virtue  of  your  commission  to  furnish  his  lord- 
ship with,  on  the  part  of  this  colony,  towards  the  ensuing 
campaign,  you  may  agree  to  raise  one  fourteenth  part  of 
the  number  that  shall  be  raised  by  the  New  England  col- 
onies ;  but,  if  that  proportion  cannot  be  obtained,  you  are 


SAMUEL    WARD.  Ill 

then  to  agree  to  such  other  proportion  as  shall  appear  to 
you  just  and  equitable." 

These  instructions  aid  us  in  comprehending  the  circum- 
stances of  the  times,  and  illustrate  the  nature  of  the  ques- 
tions which  were  at  issue,  while  they  also  serve  to  indicate 
the  spirit  of  loyalty  and  of  sacrifice  for  the  general  good 
which  pervaded  the  people  of  Rhode  Island. 

Governor  Greene  was  prevented  by  sickness  from  at- 
tending the  convention,  and  the  performance  of  the  duty 
assigned  to  the  remaining  commissioners  fell  almost  en- 
tirely upon  Mr.  Ward,  who,  on  his  return  from  Hartford, 
submitted  to  the  legislature  a  full  report  of  the  doings 
of  the  convention.  From  this  report,  which  is  entered  at 
length  in  the  records  of  the  Assembly,  it  appears  that  the 
Rhode  Island  commissioners  proposed  that  the  several 
colonies  should  furnish  troops  for  the  next  campaign  in 
exact  proportion  to  their  respective  population  ;  an  ar- 
rangement by  which  Massachusetts  would  have  raised 
2,432  soldiers,  Connecticut  1,582,  and  New  Hampshire 
and  Rhode  Island  each  would  have  raised  425.  This  num- 
ber on  the  part  of  Rhode  Island  was  objected  to  by  Lord 
Loudoun  as  smaller  than  that  which  had  been  agreed 
upon  by  the  convention  at  Albany  as  the  quota  of  the 
colony  ;  and  the  commissioners  were  obliged  to  waive  their 
proposal,  and  yield  to  the  levy  which  his  lordship  de- 
manded. They  were,  however,  assured  by  the  Command- 
er-in-chief that  no  further  difficulties  should  arise  re- 
specting the  command  of  the  troops,  for  he  would  take 
those  from  Rhode  Island  under  his  own  especial  com- 
mand. The  report  of  the  commissioners  was  fully  ap- 
proved by  the  Assembly ;  the  men,  whose  levy  they  had 
guarantied,  were  immediately  ordered  to  be  raised  for  the 
campaign  of  the  following  summer.  This  campaign,  how- 
ever, furnished  far  better  illustrations  of  the  valor  and 
endurance  of  the  colonial  troops  than  of  the  skill  and  con- 
duct of  their  commander. 


112  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

II. 

The  period  at  which  Mr.  Ward  entered  upon  public 
life  in  his  native  colony  was  one  distinguished  for  the  vio- 
lence of  the  local  jealousies  and  party  animosities  which 
so  frequently  appear  in  the  history  especially  of  small 
communities.  The  people  of  the  southern  counties  of 
Rhode  Island,  from  the  first  institution  of  the  govern- 
ment, had  been  more  or  less  at  variance  with  those  of  the 
northern. 

The  town  of  Newport  was  at  that  time  the  only  port  of 
entry  in  the  colony,  and  in  point  of  commercial  impor- 
tance was  one  of  the  foremost  towns  along  the  entire  At- 
lantic coast.  It  was  the  centre  of  the  principal  wealth, 
and  the  residence,  probably,  of  most  of  the  leading  men, 
of  the  colony  ;  and,  though  the  legislature  was  accustomed 
to  hold  its  sessions  in  each  of  the  several  counties,  yet 
Newport  had  long  been  the  place  where  the  offices  of  state 
were  established,  and  was  more  than  any  other  town  the 
«seat  of  the  colonial  government.  Providence,  standing  at 
the  head  of  the  navigation  of  Narragansett  Bay,  was  the 
older  town,  and  was  rising  rapidly  in  wealth  and  impor- 
tance, and  already  beginning  to  dispute  the  supremacy  of 
the  ancient  capital.  Amidst  these  relations  subsisting  be- 
tween the  two  leading  towns,  a  mutual  jealousy  had  grad- 
ually sprung  up,  which  had  doubtless  been  fostered  by  the 
aspirants  for  office,  and  strengthened  by  the  various  local 
interests  that  had  been  incidentally  involved  in  the  issue, 
until  it  now  divided  the  opinions  and  controlled  the  poli- 
tics of  the  entire  colony. 

Among  the  incidental  questions  upon  which  this  jea- 
lousy had  fastened,  the  two  most  important  were,  the  policy 
of  the  government  in  relation  to  supplies  for  the  French 
War,  to  which  allusion  has  already  been  made,  and  the 
famous  question  of  paper  money,  which,  in  all  the  colonies 


SAMUEL    WARD.  113 

of  America,  was  a  subject  of  endless  perplexity  and  em- 
barrassment, and  in  Rhode  Island  appears  to  have  yielded 
its  fullest  harvest  of  social  and  political  evils.  The  whole 
subject  of  the  emission  of  paper  money  in  the  colonies,  to 
the  statesman  and  the  political  economist,  would  be  one 
of  the  most  curious  and  instructive  connected  with  their 
history.  For  fifty  years  this  deceptive  currency  spread 
its  disastrous  influence  over  the  trade  and  the  morals  of 
the  country,  and  was  not  wholly  abandoned  till  the  bene- 
fits of  political  independence  had  changed  the  relations  of 
trade  between  America  and  all  other  parts  of  the  world. 

The  earliest  emission  of  bills  of  credit,  to  take  the 
place  of  gold  and  silver  in  Rhode  Island,  was  made  in 
1710.  The  colony  had  been  at  great  expense  in  furnish- 
ing supplies  for  the  war  with  France,  in  which  the  mother 
country  had  been  involved  ever  since  the  accession  of 
William  and  Mary  to  the  throne.  Finding  the  resources 
of  the  treasury  inadequate  to  the  exigency,  the  General 
Assembly,  following  the  example  already  set  by  Massa- 
chusetts twenty  years  before,  adopted  the  fatal  though 
perhaps  inevitable  expedient  of  issuing  bills  of  credit,  and 
thus  delaying  the  actual  payment  of  the  debts  which  had 
been  incurred.  The  first  emission  did  not  exceed  the 
sum  of  five  thousand  pounds ;  but  this  mode  of  postpon- 
ing to  the  future  the  necessities  of  the  present,  having 
been  once  invented,  was  found  to  be  too  convenient  to  be 
readily  abandoned.  Other  emissions  followed  in  rapid 
succession,  until,  in  1749,  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  forty 
years,  the  bills  which  had  been  issued  amounted  to  not 
less  than  three  hundred  and  twelve  thousand  three  hun- 
dred pounds,  of  which  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  thou- 
sand pounds  were  still  standing  against  the  treasury,  in 
one  form  or  another ;  and  these  constituted  the  depreci- 
ated and  almost  valueless  currency  of  the  colony. 

Every  occasion  of  public  expenditure  furnished  an  ex- 


114  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

cuse  for  the  issue  of  a  new  Bank  ;  and  though  merchants 
were  everywhere  suffering  from  the  policy,  and  frequently 
petitioned  against  it,  and  most  intelligent  persons  were 
satisfied  of  its  ruinous  tendency,  yet  so  captivating  to  the 
people  is  always  the  idea  of  plentiful  money,  and  so  clam- 
orous were  now  the  multitude  of  those  who  were  largely 
in  debt,  that  numbers  of  the  Assembly  constantly  yielded 
to  the  popular  will,  and  in  some  instances,  it  is  said,  act- 
ually legislated  to  meet  their  own  private  necessities.  The 
currency  which  was  thus  created  tended  in  no  equivocal 
manner  to  impair  the  commercial  contracts,  and  to  pros- 
trate the  commercial  honor,  of  the  whole  community, 
while  it  perpetually  offered  to  the  reckless  and  the  profli- 
gate an  opportunity,  too  tempting  to  be  resisted,  to  coun- 
terfeit the  bills  of  the  colony ;  a  crime  of  frequent  occur- 
rence, though  punished  in  Rhode  Island  with  cropping 
the  ears  and  branding  the  forehead  of  the  offender,  to- 
gether with  the  confiscation  of  his  entire  estate.1 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  subject  upon  which  the 
two  political  parties  in  Rhode  Island  were  accustomed 
most  frequently  to  divide  during  the  period  of  which  we 
are  now  writing.  The  mercantile,  and  what  was  then  re- 
garded as  the  more  aristocratic,  portion  of  the  community 
were  usually  opposed  to  the  emissions  of  paper  money, 
while  those  whose  fortunes  and  avocations  placed  them  in 
humbler  life  were  arrayed  in  their  favor.  At  the  head  of 
this  latter  party,  which  was  also  supported  by  some  of  the 
leading  citizens  of  Providence,  stood  Stephen  Hopkins,  a 
gentleman  whose  name  is  conspicuous  in  the  annals  of  the 
colony,  and  who,  both  as  a  determined  opponent  in  the 
fiercest  contests  of  local  politics  and  an  unwavering  coad- 
jutor in  the  far  nobler  struggle  of  the  Revolution,  was  for 

1  For  a  full  view  of  this  curious  subject,  see  a  pamphlet  by  Elisha 
R.  Potter,  entitled  A  Brief  Account  of  Emissions  of  Paper  Money  made 
by  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  115 

many  years  intimately  connected  with  the  public  life  of 
Samuel  Ward.  Supported  principally  by  the  northern 
towns  of  the  colony,  Mr.  Hopkins,  in  1755,  had  succeeded 
Governor  William  Greene  as  the  head  of  the  govern- 
ment, in  opposition  to  the  wishes  and  efforts  of  a  power- 
ful minority  who  were  attached  to  the  interests  of  the 
south.  The  success  of  the  Hopkins  party  raised  to  a  high 
pitch  of  excitement  the  animosity  between  the  two  dis- 
tricts of  the  colony,  and,  during  the  years  in  which  Mr. 
Ward  was  a  member  of  the  Assembly,  this  animosity  was 
frequently  manifested  in  the  action  of  that  body. 

In  the  political  contest  previous  to  the  election  of  1757, 
when  Governor  Greene  was  still  the  candidate  of  the  mer- 
cantile and  southern  party,  in  opposition  to  Governor 
Hopkins,  to  whom  strong  objections  had  been  raised,  the 
latter  gentleman  published  an  address  to  the  freemen  of 
the  colony,  in  which  he  insinuated  that  the  legislature,  in 
its  recent  sessions,  had  pursued  a  policy  hostile  to  the  suc- 
cess of  his  administration.  Mr.  Ward  was  at  that  time  a 
member  of  the  Assembly,  and  took  occasion  immediately 
to  come  forward  in  its  vindication.  In  defending  it  from 
the  charges  of  Governor  Hopkins,  he  reviewed  the  Gov- 
ernor's administration,  and  stated  at  large  the  official  acts 
which  had  given  offense  to  the  people,  dwelling  particu- 
larly upon  the  conduct  of  the  executive  in  relation  to  a 
cargo  of  sugars  which  had  been  forfeited  to  the  colony, 
and  also  in  relation  to  the  liberation  of  some  French  pris- 
oners of  war,  which  had  been  made  contrary  to  the  acts 
of  the  legislature. 

For  some  cause  or  other,  which,  to  one  at  all  conversant 
with  party  warfare  in  our  own  times,  it  is  by  no  means  easy 
to  assign,  this  vindication  gave  great  offense  to  Governor 
Hopkins,  and,  though  at  the  time  occupying  the  chair  of 
chief  magistrate,  he  immediately  commenced  an  action 
for  slander  against  Mr.  Ward.  The  action  was  entered 


116  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  the  county  of  Provi- 
dence, the  county  where  the  Governor  had  always  resided, 
and  which  was  warmly  enlisted  in  the  interest  of  the  po- 
litical party  of  which  he  was  the  acknowledged  chief.  In 
order  to  escape  the  prejudicial  influence  of  party  feeling, 
and  to  secure  a  fair  trial,  Mr.  Ward  petitioned  the  legis- 
lature to  remove  the  cause  to  one  of  the  other  counties. 
On  this  petition  being  granted,  Mr.  Hopkins,  who  was 
now  out  of  office,  and  was  doubtless  suffering  from  the 
mortification  of  recent  defeat,  immediately  discontinued 
the  suit,  for  the  purpose  of  evading  the  legislative  decree, 
and,  on  the  rising  of  the  Assembly,  commenced  another, 
still  in  the  county  of  Providence.  At  length,  however, 
after  many  delays  and  evasions  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Hop- 
kins, which  could  have  been  suggested  only  by  feelings  of 
political  rivalry  or  the  exasperation  of  disappointment,  it 
was  agreed  by  the  two  parties  that  Mr.  Ward  should  sub- 
mit to  an  arrest  within  the  territory  of  Massachusetts,  and 
that  the  trial  should  be  had  before  the  court  at  Worcester, 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  colony  whose  citizens  were  so 
generally  embroiled  in  the  question  between  their  rival 
politicians. 

The  case  appears  to  have  excited  no  small  interest,  not 
only  in  Rhode  Island,  but  also  within  the  neighboring 
jurisdiction  to  which  it  was  referred ;  and  the  distin- 
guished name  of  James  Otis  is  recorded  as  one  of  the 
counsel  for  the  complainant.  It  would  seem,  however, 
that  after  the  virulence  of  party  feeling  had  somewhat 
abated  by  the  lapse  of  time,  Mr.  Hopkins  attached  less 
importance  to  a  judicial  remedy,  and,  it  may  be,  felt  less 
confidence  in  the  justice  of  his  cause ;  for,  when  the  trial 
came  on  at  Worcester,  in  1759,  he  did  not  appear  at  the 
court,  and,  after  his  counsel  had  made  some  slight  attempt 
to  have  the  case  continued  to  another  term,  it  went  against 
him  by  default,  and  he  was  required  to  pay  the  costs  of 
the  prosecution. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  117 

Thus  ended  a  case  of  political  litigation,  in  which,  as 
usually  happens  in  such  transactions,  the  gratification  of 
party  feeling  was  the  end  proposed,  far  more  than  the 
vindication  of  injured  justice.  Mr.  Ward  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  guilty  of  anything  like  slander,  or 
even  of  reprehensible  severity,  in  his  remarks  upon  the 
administration  of  Mr.  Hopkins,  which  were  strictly  con- 
fined to  his  official  acts.  Indeed,  were  such  a  writing  to 
be  produced  in  our  own  day,  and  aimed  at  a  public  officer 
on  the  eve  of  an  election,  it  would  rather  be  considered  as 
remarkable  for  its  courtesy  and  forbearance,  and  the  can- 
didate would  be  pronounced  little  less  than, mad,  who,  for 
no  greater  cause,  should  follow  the  example  of  Mr.  Hop- 
kins, and  bring  an  action  for  slander  against  its  author. 
But  the  adjudication  of  the  suit  pending  between  the 
rival  chiefs  of  the  Rhode  Island  parties  by  no  means  al- 
layed the  political  strife  with  which  the  colony  had  al- 
ready begun  to  be  divided.  Both  Ward  and  Hopkins 
were  now  candidates  for  the  office  of  Governor,  and  they 
continued  to  stand  in  opposition  to  each  other,  at  the  head 
of  powerful  parties,  for  nearly  ten  years,  in  which  each 
experienced  alternate  success  and  defeat. 

In  the  year  1761,  Mr.  Ward,  having  failed  to  secure 
an  election  to  the  chief  magistracy,  was  appointed  by  the 
General  Assembly  to  the  office  of  Chief  Justice  of  the 
colony,  which,  according  to  the  charter,  was  an  office  of 
annual  appointment.  He  discharged  its  duties  with  fidel- 
ity during  the  year  for  which  he  was  appointed  ;  but  his 
position  at  the  head  of  a  party  whose  success  was  iden- 
tified with  his  promotion  did  not  allow  him  to  remain  in 
the  quiet  sphere  of  judicial  life.  He  was  the  following 
year  again  summoned  to  the  strife  for  executive  office, 
and  at  the  election  in  May,  1762,  he  was  found  to  be  the 
successful  candidate,  and  was  installed  in  the  office  of 
Governor.  The  struggle  of  the  two  parties  is  said  to  have 


118  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

been  violent  in  the  extreme,  and  the  towns  of  the  colony 
were  nearly  equally  divided  ;  those  of  the  south  generally 
voting  for  Mr.  Ward,  and  those  of  the  north,  with  few 
exceptions,  being  strongly  in  favor  of  Mr.  Hopkins. 

It  was  the  ancient  custom  of  the  freeholders  of  Rhode 
Island,  as  the  voters  were  then  termed,  to  meet  at  New- 
port, at  the  general  election  in  May  of  every  year,  and 
deposit,  in  person,  their  votes  for  the  Governor,  Assist- 
ants, and  other  general  officers.  In  later  periods  it  had 
been  allowed,  to  those  who  could  not  attend  the  general 
election,  to  send  their  votes  by  those  who  went,  and  thus 
to  deposit  them  by  proxy ;  still,  as  the  population  of  the 
several  towns  increased,  an  immense  multitude  would 
thus  assemble  from  all  parts  of  the  colony,  presenting  a 
mass  of  human  passions,  which  might  be  easily  inflamed 
by  the  party  excitements  of  the  day,  and  which  the  stern- 
est resolves  of  the  government  were  sometimes  unable  to 
hold  in  check.  The  scene  which  was  here  presented,  in 
a  sharply  contested  election,  would  have  furnished  many 
attractive  features  for  the  satiric  pencil  of  Hogarth.  There 
were  gathered  all  who  were  hoping  for  office  and  all  who 
were  fearing  to  lose  it ;  the  leaders  of  either  party  exert- 
ing themselves,  each  to  secure  his  own  triumph,  and  the 
friends  of  each,  confident  of  success  and  eager  for  the  re- 
sult, discussing  their  respective  merits  with  the  loudest 
vociferations,  and  sometimes  enforcing  their  opinions  with 
fists  and  canes ;  and  at  length,  when  the  vote  was  declared, 
and  the  proclamation  made  in  the  public  square,  accord- 
ing to  the  ancient  custom,  before  all  the  people,  the  tri- 
umph of  the  successful  party  would  go  beyond  all  bounds 
of  decency  and  order,  and  the  day  would  sometimes  end 
in  disgraceful  riot  and  confusion. 

To  prevent  the  recurrence  of  scenes  like  these,  and  also 
to  save  the  time  and  expense  that  were  wasted  by  this 
perilous  gathering  of  the  people,  an  important  alteration 


SAMUEL    WARD.  119 

was  made  in  the  election  law  in  1760.  An  act  was  passed 
by  the  legislature,  providing  that  for  the  future  the  voting 
should  be  done  by  the  citizens  in  their  respective  towns, 
and  that  none  but  members  of  the  Assembly  should  be 
entitled  to  vote  at  Newport  on  the  day  of  election.  The 
passage  of  this  law  was  most  seasonable,  and  its  results, 
in  every  way,  were  beneficial ;  the  protracted  controversy 
between  the  friends  of  Ward  and  of  Hopkins  had  already 
begun,  and,  if  the  people  had  been  still  in  the  habit  of 
assembling  at  Newport  during  its  more  exciting  periods, 
the  peace  of  the  colony  might  have  been  seriously  endan- 
gered in  the  party  strifes  that  would  have  ensued. 

The  year  during  which  Mr.  Ward  now  held  the  office 
of  Governor  seems  not  to  have  been  marked  by  any  im- 
portant public  events.  It  deserves,  however,  to  be  men- 
tioned that  during  this  period  the  project  of  founding  an 
institution  of  learning  in  Rhode  Island  was  first  made  a 
matter  of  serious  interest  and  attention  among  the  people. 
From  the  commencement  of  this  important  enterprise, 
Governor  Ward  took  an  active  part  in  promoting  its  suc- 
cess. He  belonged  to  that  denomination  of  Christians  by 
whom  the  idea  was  first  proposed,  and  his  own  liberal 
tastes  prompted  him  to  give  the  full  weight  of  his  per- 
sonal and  official  influence  to  the  accomplishment  of  an 
undertaking  fraught  with  so  many  blessings  to  the  people 
of  the  colony. 

He  was  present  at  the  first  meeting  of  gentlemen  which 
was  held  to  consider  the  expediency  of  the  project.  His 
name  stands  among  the  first  of  those  who  petitioned  the 
legislature  for  the  charter,  and,  when  "  Rhode  Island 
College  "  was  incorporated  in  1764,  he  became  one  of  the 
original  trustees.  This  to  him  was  no  merely  honorary 
post,  but  one  that  required  of  him  a  portion  of  his  time 
and  attention,  which  he  freely  gave  to  the  interests  of  the 
infant  institution.  In  1767,  he  entered  his  son  as  a  stu- 


120  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

dent  in  one  of  its  earliest  classes,  and  to  the  close  of  his 
life  he  continued  its  fast  friend,  as  well  as  a  member  of 
its  board  of  trustees. 

Governor  Ward's  present  term  of  office  was  a  period 
of  great  suffering  and  anxiety  among  the  tradesmen  of 
the  colony,  in  consequence  of  the  extreme  depreciation  of 
the  currency.  The  general  scarcity  of  gold  and  silver 
and  the  uncertain  value  of  the  colonial  bills  depressed 
trade,  and  reduced  especially  the  poorer  classes  of  the 
people  well-nigh  to  desperation.  Murmurings  and  com- 
plaints arose  from  every  quarter,  and,  notwithstanding 
the  party  then  in  power  had  always  been  known  as  the 
opponents  of  paper  money,  yet,  in  obedience  to  a  natural 
propensity  of  the  popular  mind,  strengthened  perhaps,  in 
this  instance,  by  the  intrigues  of  politicians,  the  evils  of 
the  time  were  very  generally  charged  upon  the  adminis- 
tration ;  and,  by  means  of  the  exertions  which  were  made, 
the  next  election  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  Governor  Ward, 
and  the  success  of  Governor  Hopkins,  who  again  took  the 
oath  of  office  in  May,  1763. 

At  the  close  of  his  official  year,  Mr.  Ward,  who  while 
he  was  Governor  had  resided  at  Newport,  retired  to  his 
estate  in  Wresterly,  and,  resuming  the  quiet  occupations 
of  the  farmer  and  the  trader,  gave  his  time  to  the  care  of 
his  family,  to  reading,  and  the  society  of  his  friends ;  a 
sphere  of  life  in  which  he  cultivated  those  elevated  prin- 
ciples and  amiable  dispositions  which  not  all  the  rude 
collisions  of  politics,  nor  the  agitations  of  a  troubled  age, 
were  ever  able  to  pervert  or  to  change. 

The  intervals  which  elapsed  between  the  annual  elec- 
tions of  general  officers  in  Rhode  Island  seem  to  have 
passed  quietly  away,  with  but  a  rare  collision  of  partisans, 
and  only  an  occasional  awakening  of  party  feeling.  But, 
as  the  political  year  drew  to  a  close,  and  the  season  of 
general  election  came  on,  the  whole  colony  became  a  scene 


SAMUEL    WARD.  121 

of  agitation  and  excitement.  Every  act  that  was  per- 
formed, and  every  word  that  was  uttered,  by  either  of  the 
candidates,  became  a  matter  of  public  interest,  and,  in 
the  scarcity  of  newspapers,  was  repeated  by  political  gos- 
sips in  every  place  of  public  resort,  and  was  borne  to  the 
fireside  of  every  voter  in  the  colony.  Neighbor  was  ar- 
rayed against  neighbor  and  family  against  family,  in  an 
irreconcilable  feud,  which,  unless  it  should  be  checked, 
threatened  to  ruin  the  peace  of  the  community,  and  to  be 
transmitted  from  father  to  son. 

Impressed  with  the  disastrous  consequences  of  their 
wide  separation  from  each  other,  the  leading  men  of  both 
parties  seem,  at  different  times,  to  have  entertained  plans 
of  reconciliation,  and  of  thus  healing  the  wounds  which 
had  been  made  in  the  peace  of  the  colony.  The  first  dis- 
tinct proposal,  however,  for  this  purpose  is  believed  to 
have  come  from  Governor  Ward,  and  is  contained  in  the 
following  letter,  which  he  addressed  to  the  General  As- 
sembly on  the  28th  of  February,  1764,  just  as  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  annual  election  were  about  to  be  made :  — 

GENTLEMEN,  —  The  many  ill  consequences  necessarily  at- 
tending the  division  of  the  colony  into  parties  are  too  manifest 
to  require  any  enumeration,  and  call  for  the  serious  attention  of 
every  man  who  hath  the  welfare  of  his  country  at  heart. 

Deeply  affected  with  the  melancholy  prospect,  and  sincerely 
desirous  to  restore  that  peace  and  good  order  to  the  government, 
which  have  been  too  much  obstructed,  and  without  which  we 
can  never  be  extricated  out  of  our  present  distressed  situation, 
I  beg  leave  to  lay  before  you  some  proposals,  which,  in  my  hum- 
ble opinion,  might  greatly  tend  to  the  accomplishment  of  these 
beneficial  purposes. 

1.  As  the  Honorable  Stephen  Hopkins,  Esq.,  and  myself 
have  been  placed  by  our  respective  friends  at  the  head  of  the 
two  contending  parties,  I  think  it  necessary,  and  accordingly 
propose,  that  both  of  us  resign  our  pretensions  to  the  chief  seat 


122  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

of  government ;  for  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the  people 
have  been  so  warmly  engaged  for  a  long  time  against  one  or  the 
other  of  us  that,  should  either  Mr.  Hopkins  or  myself  be  in  the 
question,  I  imagine  the  spirit  of  party,  instead  of  subsiding, 
would  rage  with  as  great  violence  as  ever.  And  so  greatly  anx- 
ious am  I  for  putting  an  end  to  those  bitter  heats  and  animosi- 
ties, which  have  thrown  the  government  into  such  confusion, 
that  I  can  sincerely  declare  that,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  I  shall 
cheerfully  resign  all  my  pretensions  to  the  office  of  Governor,  or 
any  other  office. 

2.  As  it  is  clear  and  evident,  for  many  reasons,  that  New- 
port is  the  most  proper  place  for  the  residence  of  the  Governor, 
I  would  propose  that  the  Governor,  to  be  elected  upon  this  plan, 
should  reside  there,  and  the  Deputy-Governor  in  Providence. 

3.  That  the  Upper  House   be    equally  divided  between  the 
two  parties.     This,  I  believe,  would  naturally  tend  to  take  away 
all  pretense  for  a  party. 

When  I  made  proposals  of  this  nature  to  Mr.  Hopkins  about 
two  years  ago,  the  principal  objection  that  he  made  to  them  was, 
that  a  number  of  his  friends  had  been  deprived  of  offices,  and 
no  provision  was  made  for  restoring  them.  But  as  the  case  is 
since  altered,  and  they  are  now  restored,  I  hope  every  obstacle 
to  the  proposed  plan  is  removed. 

That  this  may  be  the   case,  and   that  we   may  all  heartily 
unite  for  the  public  good,  is  the  sincere  wish  of,  Gentlemen, 
Your  most  obedient  humble  servant, 

SAMUEL  WABD. 

On  the  same  day,  but  apparently  without  any  know- 
ledge of  the  foregoing  letter,  the  following  proposition  was 
made  to  Mr.  Ward  on  the  part  of  Governor  Hopkins,  viz. : 

The  death  of  the  Honorable  John  Gardner,  Esq.,  having 
left  the  place  of  Deputy-Governor  vacant,  Governor  Hopkins, 
and  those  in  the  administration  with  him,  invite  and  solicit  the 
Honorable  Samuel  Ward,  Esq.,  to  accept  of  that  office  ;  hoping, 
as  well  as  earnestly  desiring,  that  such  a  measure  carried  into 
execution  may  put  an  end  to  the  unhappy  and  destructive  party 


SAMUEL    WARD.  123 

disputes,  which  have  too  long  been  extremely  injurious  to  the 
colony  and  its  divided  inhabitants. 

STEPHEN  HOPKIXS,  Governor. 

Such  were  the  proposals  which  were  simultaneously 
made  by  each  of  the  gentlemen  who  seemed  to  hold  the 
peace  of  the  colony  in  their  hands.  The  terms  in  which 
they  are  both  expressed,  and  the  common  spirit  of  appre- 
hension which  pervades  them  both,  serve  to  indicate  the 
fearful  extent  to  which  the  party  strife  of  the  day  had 
been  carried.  These  proposals  were  respectively  declined 
by  each  of  the  parties :  Mr.  Ward,  it  would  appear  from 
the  correspondence,  not  thinking  his  acceptance  of  the 
post  of  Deputy-Governor  likely  to  secure  the  peace  of  the 
community ;  and  Mr.  Hopkins  regarding  his  surrender  of 
the  office  of  Governor  as  "  having  no  tendency  to  put  an 
end  to  parties,  but  as  evidently  calculated  to  perpetuate 
them."  As  we  review  the  correspondence  which  passed 
between  them,  and  recur  to  the  ordinary  principles  of 
human  nature,  it  is  not  too  much  to  suspect  that  an  un- 
willingness to  be  second  to  a  rival  chief  may  have  strength- 
ened the  conclusion  of  the  one,  and  a  reluctance  to  sur- 
render the  fascinating  gift  of  political  power  may  have 
stimulated  the  patriotism  of  the  other.  The  attempts  of 
both  parties,  however,  proved  abortive,  and  the  contest 
went  on  with  as  much  virulence  of  feeling  as  ever. 

In  May,  1765,  Mr.  Ward  was  again  elected  Governor 
of  the  colony,  and  went  from  Westerly  to  reside  at  New- 
port, where,  in  consequence  of  a  reelection  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  he  continued  to  reside  till  May,  1767.  The  two 
years  during  which  he  now  held  the  chief  magistracy  were 
full  of  excitement,  and  were  marked  by  events  of  high 
importance.  A  new  spirit  was  rising  in  the  minds  of  the 
colonists,  and  the  petty  distinctions  of  local  party  were 
for  the  time  lost  sight  of  in  the  deep  indignation  called 
forth  by  what  were  deemed  the  aggressions  of  the  mother 


124  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

country  on  the  rights  of  the  colonies.  In  the  preceding 
year  the  British  ministry  had  already  given  intimations  of 
their  intention  to  tax  America ;  and,  soon  after  the  elec- 
tion of  Mr.  Ward,  the  intelligence  was  received  in  Khode 
Island  that  the  Stamp  Act  had  passed  both  Houses  of 
Parliament,  and  had  received  the  royal  approbation. 

At  one  of  the  sessions  of  the  previous  year,  the  Colo- 
nial Assembly  had  given  utterance  to  the  feelings  of  their 
constituents,  in  the  petition  which  they  had  adopted  and 
sent  to  the  king ;  and,  though  a  considerable  number  of 
the  wealthier  inhabitants  of  Newport  and  of  some  others 
of  the  southern  towns  were  still  unwilling  to  oppose  an 
act  of  Parliament,  yet,  no  sooner  was  it  known  that  the 
Stamp  Act  had  become  a  law  than  the  minds  of  both  the 
government  and  the  people  were  made  up  to  disregard  its 
provisions.  The  act  was  not  to  go  into  operation  till  the 
following  November,  and  the  events  of  the  interval  only 
served  to  strengthen  the  determination  to  resist  and  to 
increase  the  irritability  of  the  popular  mind.  Commis- 
sions were  sent  over,  appointing  the  necessary  officers  to 
superintend  the  execution  of  the  law,  and  the  cruisers  of 
the  king,  which  seemed  to  multiply  in  all  the  ports  of  the 
colonies,  became  subjects  of  popular  jealousy  and  hatred, 
on  account  of  the  closeness  of  their  scrutiny  and  the  ar- 
rogance of  their  demands  upon  the  inhabitants. 

During  the  summer  of  1765,  while  the  Maidstone, 
sloop  of  war,  was  lying  in  the  harbor  of  Newport,  the 
captain,  whose  name  was  Charles  Antrobus,  impressed 
some  sailors  belonging  to  the  town,  and  detained  them  on 
board  his  vessel.  On  a  complaint  being  made,  Governor 
Ward  immediately  wrote  a  request  for  their  release,  which 
not  being  complied  with,  a  band  of  people  at  one  of  the 
wharves  seized  a  boat  belonging  to  the  Maidstone,  and 
burnt  it  in  a  public  square.  This  act  of  violence  gave  rise 
to  a  series  of  retaliations  on  the  part  of  the  commander  of 


SAMUEL    WARD.  125 

the  sloop,  which  for  a  time  suspended  all  intercourse,  and 
came  near  producing  open  hostilities  between  the  people 
of  the  Maidstone  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  town.  The 
Governor,  in  his  correspondence  with  Captain  Antrobus, 
contended  that  "the  impressing  of  P^nglishmen  was  an 
arbitrary  action,  contrary  to  law,  inconsistent  with  lib- 
erty, and  to  be  justified  only  by  urgent  necessity."  "  But, 
as  the  ship  lay  moored  in  an  English  colony,  always  ready 
to  render  any  assistance  necessary  for  his  Majesty's  ser- 
vice, there  could  be  no  possible  reason  sufficient  to  justify 
the  severe  and  rigorous  impress  carried  on  in  this  port." 
He  also  firmly  maintained  the  principle  that  the  com- 
mander and  crew  of  a  ship  lying  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  colony  were  subject  to  its  laws. 

The  men  who  had  been  impressed  were  afterwards  given 
up,  but  not  till  they  had  been  detained  for  several  weeks, 
during  which  there  were  frequent  collisions  between  the 
people  belonging  to  the  vessel  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
town.  Incidents  like  this  served  only  to  array  the  feelings 
of  the  colonists  still  more  decidedly  against  the  officers  of 
the  crown,  and  doubtless  prepared  the  way  for  the  ex- 
cesses which  were  soon  afterwards  committed  against  the 
vindicators  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  the  officers  who  had 
been  appointed  to  superintend  its  execution. 

Mr.  Augustus  Johnson,  a  lawyer  of  respectable  stand- 
ing in  Newport,  had  accepted  the  office  of  stamp  master, 
in  contempt  alike  of  the  arguments  and  the  threatenings 
which  were  employed  to  dissuade  him,  and  was  preparing 
to  perform  its  duties,  when  the  day  should  arrive  for  the 
enforcement  of  the  act.  On  the  27th  of  August,  in  open 
day,  a  few  weeks  after  the  affair  of  the  Maidstone,  a 
riotous  collection  of  persons  appeared  in  the  streets  of 
Newport,  with  a  cart  containing  the  effigies  of  Augustus 
Johnson,  Martin  Howard,  and  Dr.  Thomas  Moffat,  the 
stamp  master  and  two  gentlemen  who  had  written  in  de- 


126  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

fense  of  the  act,  each  with  a  halter  upon  its  neck.  The 
images  were  drawn  through  the  streets  to  a  gallows  which 
had  been  erected  near  the  town  house,  and  were  there 
hung  up  till  evening,  to  the  gaze  and  derision  of  the  mul- 
titude. On  the  following  day  the  mob  again  assembled, 
and  proceeded  first  to  the  house  of  Moffat,  and  afterwards 
to  that  of  Howard,  both  of  which  they  stripped  of  their 
furniture  and  nearly  destroyed,  the  gentlemen  themselves 
having  escaped  to  a  ship  of  war  lying  in  the  harbor.  The 
house  of  Johnson  was  also  assailed ;  but,  by  the  persua- 
sions of  some  of  the  principal  men  of  the  town,  it  was 
spared,  on  his  giving  a  reluctant  promise  that  he  would 
not  perform  the  duties  of  stamp  master.1 

Some  efforts  were  made  by  the  government  of  the  col- 
ony to  apprehend  the  persons  who  were  engaged  in  these 
outrages,  and  the  matter  was  soon  after  brought  to  the 
notice  of  the  Assembly,  by  whom  the  Governor  was  re- 
quested to  issue  a  proclamation  commanding  all  officers  to 
arrest  the  rioters  wherever  they  might  be  found.  But  a 
similar  scene  had  just  before  been  enacted  in  Boston  ;  and, 
in  the  excited  state  of  the  public  mind,  which  then  pre- 
vailed, though  most  well-disposed  people  disapproved,  and 
perhaps  regretted  the  proceeding,  yet  none  could  be  found 
who  were  willing  to  come  forward  and  bear  testimony 
against  its  authors. 

The  report  of  these  outbreaks,  which  went  home  to 
England,  produced  upon  the  administration  an  impression 
most  unfavorable  to  the  reputation  of  the  colony ;  and,  in 
a  letter  which  Governor  Ward  soon  afterwards  received 
from  the  agent  in  London,  it  was  stated  that  the  Lords  of 

1  See  Life  of  Augustus  Johnson,  in  Updike's  Memoirs  of  the  Rhode 
Island  Bar,  p.  67.  Mr.  Updike  represents  the  riot  as  having  occurred 
in  1766,  after  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  ;  but  the  recorded  pro- 
ceedings of  the  legislature,  and  a  notice  in  the  Providence  Gazelle, 
fix  it  in  1765. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  127 

the  Treasury  had  determined  to  withhold  the  money  which 
was  still  due  to  the  colony  for  the  supplies  she  had  fur- 
nished in  the  war,  until  full  indemnification  should  be 
made  to  those  who  had  suffered  from  the  proceedings  of 
the  rioters.  This  information  gave  rise  to  a  long  corre- 
spondence between  the  government  of  the  colony  and  the 
Secretary  of  State  in  England,  in  which  the  claim  of 
Khode  Island  to  compensation  was  urged  on  independent 
grounds  ;  but  the  condition  was  still  insisted  on,  and  the 
money  was  withheld  by  the  ministry.1  Several  attempts 
were  subsequently  made  to  get  a  bill  through  the  Assem- 
bly to  indemnify  the  stamp  master  and  his  associates,  who 
had  suffered  at  Newport,  but  in  every  instance  without 
success ;  and,  as  no  restitution  appears  ever  to  have  been 
made,  it  is  presumed  that  the  services  of  the  colony  re- 
mained unrequited,  until  the  Revolution  put  an  end  to  all 
urging  of  the  claim.2 

While  these  events  were  in  progress,  the  Stamp  Act 
was  becoming  a  still  more  engrossing  subject  of  popular 
attention  ;  and,  as  the  time  for  its  enforcement  approached, 
the  feelings  of  the  community  were  raised  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  excitement.  The  association  of  the  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty, who  pledged  themselves  to  abstain  from  the  use  of 

1  Two   letters   relating   to   this   subject,  addressed   by  Governor 
Ward,  one  to  Mr.   Secretary  Conway,  and   the   other  to  the  Earl 
of  Shelburne,  are  contained  in  Almon's  Prior  Documents,  pp.  102 
and  118. 

2  A  bill  passed  the  House  of  Assistants,  in  1768,  making  full  in- 
demnification for  the  losses  of  property  sustained  by  these  men  ;  but 
the  claims  which  they  presented  were  deemed  exorbitant   by  the 
Lower  House,  and  were  also  without  satisfactory  certificates  ;  they 
were  accordingly  dismissed.     In  1772,  the  claims  were  again  before 
the  Assembly,  and  reexamined  by  a  committee  appointed  for  the 
purpose.     After  undergoing  considerable  reduction  by  the  commit- 
tee, they  were  at  length  allowed  by  both  Houses,  and  were  ordered 
to  be  paid  when  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury  should  pay  the  debt  due 
to  the  colony  for  its  services  in  the  war.     This  was  never  paid. 


128  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

every  article  bearing  the  odious  stamp,  extended  through- 
out the  colony.  Many  of  the  towns  held  meetings,  and 
instructed  their  deputies  to  urge  the  strongest  measures  in 
opposition  to  the  act ;  and  the  Assembly,  at  its  session  in 
September,  adopted  the  five  celebrated  resolutions  which 
had  been  drawn  up  by  Patrick  Henry,  four  of  which  had 
just  before  been  passed  by  the  House  of  Burgesses  of 
Virginia.  The  fourth  resolution  received  an  important 
modification  by  the  omission  of  the  words  "  his  Majesty 
or  his  substitutes,"  and,  as  adopted  by  the  Assembly,  de- 
clared that  their  own  body  possessed  "  the  only  exclusive 
right  to  lay  taxes  and  imposts  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the 
colony."  To  these  resolutions  they  also  added  another, 
breathing  the  spirit  of  a  still  bolder  opposition  to  the 
aggressions  of  the  ministry,  in  which  they  directed  all  the 
officers  appointed  by  the  authority  of  the  colony  "  to  pro- 
ceed in  the  execution  of  their  respective  offices  in  the  same 
manner  as  usual,  and  that  this  Assembly  will  indemnify 
and  save  harmless  all  the  said  officers  on  account  of  their 
conduct,  agreeable  to  this  resolution."  These  resolutions, 
taken  as  a  whole,  are  nearly  equivalent  to  a  declaration  of 
independence,  though  no  formal  act  of  the  kind  had  then 
been  proposed.  They  appear  to  have  been,  at  the  time  of 
their  adoption,  decidedly  in  advance  of  those  of  any  other 
colony,  in  the  tone  of  resolute  independence  which  per- 
vades them,  and  were  undoubtedly  a  true  expression  of 
the  general  feeling  which  reigned  among  the  people. 

At  the  same  session  the  Assembly  also  appointed  dele- 
gates to  the  Colonial  Congress,  which  was  soon  to  meet  at 
New  York,  for  the  purpose  of  representing  to  his  Majesty 
the  views  entertained  by  the  people  of  America  respecting 
the  Stamp  Act.  The  gentlemen  selected  for  this  delega- 
tion were  Henry  Ward,  a  younger  brother  of  the  Gover- 
nor, and  Metcalf  Bowles,  both  of  them  citizens  of  eminent 
standing,  and  holding  high  offices  in  the  colony.  The  in- 


SAMUEL    WARD.  129 

structions  which  the  Assembly  voted  to  the  delegates 
breathed  the  same  determined  spirit  as  the  resolutions  to 
which  we  have  already  referred,  and  evinced,  in  the  most 
unequivocal  manner,  that  they  regarded  the  concerns  com- 
mitted to  the  Congress  as  "of  the  last  consequence  to 
themselves,  to  their  constituents,  and  to  posterity." 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  1767,  the  hostility  subsisting 
between  the  political  parties  of  the  colony  reappeared  in 
all  its  violence.  Mr.  Hopkins  was  again  the  opposing 
candidate  for  the  office  of  Governor,  at  the  head  of  a 
ticket  of  general  officers,  who,  with  reference  to  the  dis- 
tracted condition  of  the  community,  were  styled  by  their 
friends  "  Seekers  of  Peace."  The  contest  which  ensued 
was  attended  with  unusual  excitement  in  every  part  of  the 
colony ;  the  towns  north  of  Bristol  and  Warwick  all  giving 
large  majorities  for  Hopkins,  while  the  southern  towns 
gave  their  votes,  with  scarcely  less  unanimity,  for  Ward. 
The  campaign  resulted  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Hopkins  by 
a  larger  majority  than  he  had  ever  before  received. 

This  election  was  the  last  in  which  these  gentlemen  ap- 
peared as  candidates  in  opposition  to  each  other.  At  the 
meeting  of  the  Assembly  in  the  following  March,  the  sea- 
son at  which  the  arrangements  for  the  annual  election 
were  usually  made,  Governor  Hopkins,  who  had  been 
elected  as  a  "  peacemaker,"  in  behalf  of  himself  and  the 
friends  who  supported  him,  put  forth  substantially  the 
same  proposals  for  the  pacification  of  the  colony  which 
Ward  had  made  four  years  before,  and  which  he  had 
then  rejected.  These  were,  that  both  the  rival  candidates 
should  relinquish  all  pretensions  to  the  chief  place  in  the 
government,  and  that  the  two  parties  should  unite  in  form- 
ing an  administration,  in  which  one  should  nominate  a 
Governor,  and  the  other  a  Deputy-Governor,  each  from 
the  ranks  of  its  own  opponents.  The  terms  were  readily 
accepted  by  Governor  Ward  and  his  friends  ;  and  the  two 


130  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

chiefs,  who  had  so  long  been  arrayed  in  opposition  to  each 
other,  met  first  at  Providence,  and  afterwards  at  Newport, 
and  settled  the  preliminaries  of  what  proved  to  be  a  lasting 
and  happy  coalition. 

Thus  ended  what  perhaps  deserves  to  be  regarded  as 
the  most  remarkable  contest  of  parties  which  has  occurred 
in  the  history  of  Rhode  Island.  The  inquirer  at  this  dis- 
tant day,  who  explores  its  half-forgotten  records,  finds  but 
little  to  explain  the  length  to  which  it  was  protracted,  or 
the  acrimony  with  which  it  was  carried  on.  Though  it 
was  occasionally  involved  with  questions  of  public  policy, 
yet,  in  the  main,  it  seems  not  to  have  depended  on  any 
important  principle  of  government  or  any  leading  interest 
of  society.  It  was  a  warfare  between  men  and  classes, 
and  not  between  measures  and  interests.  The  gentlemen 
who  for  nearly  ten  years  stood  at  the  head  of  the  respec- 
tive parties  were  both  persons  of  liberal  minds,  and,  it 
would  seem,  were  quite  above  the  petty  ambition  which 
seeks  office  merely  for  the  sake  of  its  trifling  rewards ; 
and  the  strife  in  which  they  were  so  long  and  so  warmly 
engaged  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  referring  it  to  the 
natural  antagonism  which,  in  certain  states  of  society, 
always  exists  between  persons  of  different  classes  and  dif- 
ferent occupations  and  habits  of  life.  The  portion  of  the 
community  who  supported  Governor  Ward  regarded  them- 
selves as  the  most  suitable  guardians  of  the  public  weal, 
on  account  of  their  hereditary  wealth,  their  intelligence, 
and  their  elevated  position  in  society ;  while  those  who 
favored  Governor  Hopkins  were  perhaps  at  first  thrown 
into  the  opposition  by  their  jealousy  of  a  class  who  claimed 
to  be  their  superiors  in  social  importance,  and  who  had 
long  been  accustomed  to  wield  the  political  power  of  the 
colony. 

The  continuance  of  the  controversy  had  been  productive 
of  unnumbered  evils,  and,  on  account  of  the  expense  and 


SAMUEL    WARD.  131 

the  excitement  it  occasioned,  had  doubtless  become  weari- 
some to  the  leading  members  of  both  parties.  Besides, 
other  questions  had  arisen,  embracing  wider  interests  than 
those  of  a  single  colony,  and  new  parties  were  already 
forming  on  principles  which  involved  the  dearest  rights  of 
Englishmen.  Before  these  higher  questions  the  petty 
strifes  of  local  politics  necessarily  lost  their  importance, 
and  the  spirit  which  had  hitherto  animated  them  became 
speedily  merged  in  patriotic  solicitude  for  the  liberties  of 
the  country. 

III. 

Previously  to  the  period  at  which  Governor  Ward 
closed  his  official  connection  with  the  government  of  the 
colony,  we  have  seen  that  he  was  more  than  once  called, 
in  the  discharge  of  his  duty,  to  take  a  firm  stand  against 
the  encroachments  which  the  ministry  had  already  com- 
menced upon  the  rights  of  the  colonists.  To  the  position 
which  he  thus  assumed,  we  have  every  reason  to  believe, 
he  was  directed  not  less  by  his  personal  convictions  than 
by  the  dictates  of  official  duty.  From  the  beginning  of 
the  contest  with  the  mother  country,  he  seems  to  have 
given  his  whole  influence  to  the  colonial  side  of  the  ques- 
tions at  issue ;  and,  as  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  party 
then  in  power,  he  was  doubtless  largely  instrumental  in 
promoting  the  unanimity  of  feeling  which  characterized 
the  opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act  in  the  colony.  After  the 
repeal  of  this  act,  however,  and  the  passage  of  the  reve- 
nue laws  of  1767  and  1769,  the  issue  which  was  presented 
was  thought  to  be  different  from  that  of  former  years, 
and  many  of  the  wealthy  merchants  of  Newport,  and  of 
other  towns  of  Rhode  Island,  who  had  acted  with  Gov- 
ernor Ward  in  all  the  contests  of  local  politics,  were  now 
willing  to  engage  but  feebly,  if  at  all,  in  measures  of  re- 
sistance to  the  authority  of  Parliament. 


132  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

To  him,  however,  the  questions  which  were  presented 
were  still  the  same,  and  his  views  of  their  importance  to 
the  colonies,  or  of  the  measures  which  it  was  necessary  to 
adopt  in  opposing  them,  were  not  changed  by  the  opinions 
of  his  former  friends  and  supporters.  He  was  now  in 
private  life  ;  but  he  still  watched  with  anxious  interest  the 
course  of  public  events,  and,  through  the  medium  of  his 
correspondence,  and  of  occasional  intercourse  with  the 
leading  patriots  of  New  England,  he  contributed  the  in- 
fluence of  his  own  earnest  views  towards  forming  the  pub- 
lic sentiment  that  ruled  the  events  of  the  time. 

After  the  renewal  of  the  attempt  to  tax  the  colonies  by 
the  Townshend  administration,  the  coast  of  New  England 
was  carefully  watched  by  cruisers  employed  by  the  com- 
missioners of  customs,  to  repress  the  illegal  traffic  which 
was  extensively  carried  on,  and  to  aid  the  custom-house 
officers  in  enforcing  the  laws  for  collecting  the  revenue. 
For  these  vessels,  the  harbor  of  Newport  was  one  of  the 
principal  rendezvous,  and,  being  an  important  port  of 
entry,  it  was  constantly  frequented  by  them.  The  harsh 
impressments,  and  the  arrogant  demands  for  supplies 
which  were  often  made  by  their  commanders,  gave  rise 
to  frequent  collisions  between  them  and  the  inhabitants 
of  the  colony,  and  tended  gradually  to  detach  from  the 
mother  country  the  affections  even  of  those  who  had 
hitherto  taken  no  part  in  the  resistance  which  had  been 
made  to  the  acts  of  Parliament.  These  insolent  displays 
of  authority,  and  the  annoyances  which  were  suffered  in 
consequence  in  many  parts  of  the  colony,  seem  to  have 
rendered  the  minds  of  the  people  peculiarly  irritable,  and, 
like  the  presence  of  troops  among  the  inhabitants  of  Bos- 
ton, to  have  kept  alive  a  hostile  feeling,  which  any  slight 
occasion  was  sufficient  to  fan  into  a  flame. 

Such  an  occasion  was  presented  in  the  summer  of  the 
year  1769.  The  armed  sloop  Liberty,  commanded  by 


SAMUEL    WARD.  133 

Captain  Reid,  brought  into  the  harbor  of  Newport  two 
vessels,  one  a  sloop  and  the  other  a  brig,  which  she  had 
taken  in  Long  Island  Sound,  on  suspicion  of  their  being 
engaged  in  the  contraband  traffic.  The  sloop  appears  to 
have  been  open  to  suspicion,  but  the  brig  had  regularly 
cleared  at  the  custom-house  of  the  port  from  which  she 
sailed.  Both  of  them,  however,  were  forcibly  detained 
beneath  the  guns  of  the  cruiser,  and  occupied  by  a  guard 
whom  Captain  Reid  had  placed  on  board.  The  seizure 
was  thought  to  be  illegal  by  the  people  of  the  town,  and 
their  sympathies  were  warmly  enlisted  in  behalf  of  the 
captured  vessels.  The  commander  of  the  brig,  on  rinding 
himself  thus  stripped  of  his  command,  and  even  refused 
access  to  his  personal  wardrobe,  was  forced  into  an  alter- 
cation and  scuffle  with  the  man  who  had  been  set  over 
him,  and  afterwards,  while  passing  to  the  shore  in  his 
boat,  was  fired  upon  by  the  crew  of  the  Liberty.  This 
was  provocation  enough  to  call  forth  all  the  indignant 
feeling  which  had  long  existed  in  the  popular  mind  to- 
wards the  cruisers  of  the  king.  The  captain  of  the 
Liberty,  being  found  on  shore  on  the  evening  of  the  same 
day,  was  seized  by  the  people,  and  compelled  to  send  for 
his  crew,  in  order  that  the  person  who  had  fired  upon  the 
captain  of  the  brig  might  be  identified.  In  the  mean 
time,  a  party  from  the  shore  went  off  to  the  sloop,  cut  the 
cables  which  moored  her,  and,  on  her  drifting  to  a  neigh- 
boring point,  dismantled  her,  and  a  few  days  afterwards 
burnt  her  to  the  water's  edge.1 

This  destruction  of  the  sloop  Liberty,  in  the  harbor  of 
Newport,  has  been  justly  claimed  as  among  the  earliest, 
in  point  of  time,  of  the  acts  of  open  resistance  to  British 
power,  which  terminated  in  the  final  separation  of  the 
colonies  from  England.  It  was  followed,  three  years 
later,  by  the  destruction  of  the  schooner  Gaspee,  upon 

1  See  Staples's  Gaspee  Documents  •  and,  for  a  fuller  account  of  the 
affair,  Bull's  Memoir  of  the  Colony  for  1769. 


134  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

the  waters  of  the  same  bay,  and  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  same  colony  ;  and,  though  less  important  from  the 
consequences  it  produced,  yet,  as  an  illustration  of  the 
spirit  of  the  colony,  it  deserves  a  place  in  the  history  of 
the  revolutionary  struggle,  on  the  same  page  which  re- 
cords that  famous  achievement.  Immediately  after  the 
attack  upon  the  Liberty,  the  Governor,  with  the  advice 
of  such  of  the  Assistants  as  he  could  assemble,  issued  a 
proclamation,  directing  the  officers  of  the  king  "  to  use 
their  utmost  endeavors  to  inquire  after  and  discover  "  the 
persons  engaged  in  the  riot,  and  the  commissioners  of  cus- 
toms published  a  notice  offering  a  reward  of  a  hundred 
pounds  for  any  information  which  should  lead  to  their 
detection.  But  no  judicial  investigation  was  ever  held, 
and  neither  the  proclamation  made  by  the  Governor,  nor 
the  reward  offered  by  the  commissioners,  in  the  state  of 
feeling  then  prevalent  in  the  colony,  was  sufficient  to  elicit 
any  important  evidence. 

The  destruction  of  the  Gaspee,  in  addition  to  the  nu- 
merous acts  of  resistance  which  had  preceded  it,  created 
in  the  minds  of  the  ministry  the  deepest  dislike  towards 
the  colony,  and  a  determination  to  humble  its  spirit  by 
every  means  in  their  power.  It  is  said  they  formed  the 
purpose  of  quartering  some  regiments  of  soldiers  in  its 
two  principal  towns,  and  even  advised  the  king  to  abro- 
gate the  charter,  which  had  been  granted  by  Charles  the 
Second.  For  the  purpose  of  investigating  the  circum- 
stances attending  the  burning  of  the  schooner,  a  court  of 
commissioners  was  appointed  under  the  authority  of  the 
great  seal,  with  instructions  to  employ,  if  necessary,  the 
troops  of  the  king,  in  executing  their  commission,  and  to 
deliver  the  persons  who  should  be  found  to  have  partici- 
pated in  the  affair  to  the  commander  of  one  of  the  ships 
of  war,  to  be  transported  to  England  for  trial.  The  ex- 
traordinary powers  and  arbitrary  proceedings  of  this  high 


SAMUEL    WARD.  135 

court  of  inquiry  were  subjects  of  widespread  apprehen- 
sion, and  attracted  the  attention  of  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses of  Virginia,  who  appointed  a  committee  to  inquire 
into  their  bearing  upon  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  col- 
onies. The  investigations  of  this  court,  however,  which 
were  conducted  with  great  assiduity  for  many  weeks,  were 
at  length  brought  to  a  close,  without  leading  to  the  detec- 
tion of  any  of  the  offenders,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
they  were  well  known  to  hundreds  of  the  people  of  the 
colony. 

The  incidents  which  we  have  thus  related  illustrate 
the  state  of  popular  feeling  in  Rhode  Island,  in  the  early 
stages  of  the  contest  with  Great  Britain.  That  these  acts 
of  violence  were  illegal,  and  against  the  peace  and  good 
order  of  the  colony,  cannot  be  denied ;  and  as  such  they 
seem  to  have  been  generally  regarded  at  the  time.  But, 
when  viewed  in  their  connection  with  the  revolutionary 
struggle,  which  was  already  commencing,  they  are  not  to 
be  condemned  as  crimes  against  society.  They  were 
rather  the  natural  consequences  of  the  injurious  laws  of 
Parliament,  and  especially  of  the  oppressive  manner  in 
which  those  laws  were  executed  by  the  officers  of  the 
king,  who  were  sent  to  the  colony. 

These  officers  were  in  the  habit  not  only  of  searching 
every  vessel  that  came  within  their  reach,  which  some- 
times occasioned  a  detention  of  several  days,  but  they 
would  often  seize  upon  the  market  boats  which  plied  upon 
the  bay,  for  the  trifling  purpose  of  examining  the  freights 
which  they  contained,  and  would  subject  their  crews,  who 
were  usually  farmers  from  the  country,  to  every  species  of 
indignity  and  oppression.  They  seldom  took  the  trouble 
to  exhibit  their  commissions  to  any  of  the  magistrates 
of  the  colony,  but  seemed  to  hold  themselves  above  the 
laws,  and  to  sport  with  the  interests  and  rights  of  the 
inhabitants.  As  they  were  perpetually  hovering  upon  the 


136  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

coast,  and  seldom  remained  long  in  port,  legal  redress  for 
the  injuries  they  occasioned  was  impossible  ;  and  it  is  not 
strange  that  they  should  have  occasionally  experienced 
the  vengeance  of  an  insulted  people. 

The  sky  was  now  growing  dark  with  clouds  that  por- 
tended still  more  violent  commotions.  The  impression 
which  had  been  produced  by  the  destruction  of  the  Gas- 
pee,  and  by  the  proceedings  of  the  commissioners  who 
were  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  affair,  instead  of  hum- 
bling the  spirit  of  the  colony,  as  was  intended,  served  only 
to  prepare  the  minds  of  the  people  for  still  further  acts  of 
resistance.  Reverence  for  the  authority  of  Parliament 
was  rapidly  passing  away,  and  the  necessity  of  boldly 
withstanding  the  enforcement  of  the  revenue  acts  was 
every  day  becoming  more  apparent.  Agreements  of  non- 
importation and  non-consumption  had  been  formed  among 
the  inhabitants  of  Newport  and  Providence,  as  early  as 
1769 ;  and  though  they  seem  not  in  all  cases  to  have  been 
very  faithfully  adhered  to,  yet  they  served  to  organize  the 
opposition  that  was  now  very  generally  felt  towards  the 
proceedings  of  Parliament. 

The  tax  on  tea  was  still  continued ;  and  the  unusual 
facilities  for  its  importation  into  the  colonies,  which  had 
been  granted  to  the  East  India  Company,  created  among 
the  people,  especially  of  the  commercial  towns,  an  appre- 
hension that  they  might  at  length  be  obliged  to  submit  to 
the  tyranny  that  threatened  them.  In  this  apprehension 
Rhode  Island  largely  shared,  for  she  presented  the  most 
accessible  port  upon  the  coast,  and  numbered  among  her 
eminent  merchants  a  few,  at  least,  who  might  have  con- 
sented to  act  as  factors  of  the  Company,  for  the  sale  of 
the  tea. 

During  the  whole  period  through  which  we  have  thus 
traced  the  early  progress  of  the  revolutionary  contest  in 
Rhode  Island,  Governor  Ward  had  lived  in  comparative 


SAMUEL    WARD.  137 

retirement  upon  his  estate  at  Westerly.  He  was  here 
surrounded  by  his  numerous  family  and  by  an  extensive 
circle  of  friends.  He  had  not  been  exempt  from  the 
melancholy  changes  incident  to  every  human  lot,  but  had 
buried  several  of  his  kindred  and  his  dearest  friends ; 
and,  though  he  had  lost  none  of  his  children,  he  had  been 
stricken  with  a  still  heavier  calamity  in  the  loss  of  his 
wife,  the  amiable  and  worthy  companion  of  many  years, 
who  died  in  December,  1770.  In  addition  to  the  care  of 
his  family  and  the  management  of  his  estate,  his  atten- 
tion had  been  in  part  occupied  by  a  vexatious  suit  at  law 
with  a  troublesome  neighbor,  in  which  he  had  been  com- 
pelled to  engage,  in  vindication  of  his  title  to  a  tract  of 
land  lying  in  the  Narragansett  country.  The  suit  was  at 
length  decided  in  his  favor,  after  being  protracted  through 
several  years,  during  which  his  opponent  attempted  to  en- 
list against  him  the  partisan  feeling  which  still  survived 
the  controversy  in  which  he  had  formerly  been  engaged. 

But  he  was  also  a  close  observer  of  the  course  of  public 
events  ;  and,  though  dwelling  apart  from  the  excited  feel- 
ing which  now  pervaded  the  larger  towns,  he  was  not  the 
less  informed  of  the  progress  of  liberal  sentiments,  nor  the 
less  able  to  estimate  with  calm  judgment  the  magnitude 
of  the  issues  to  which  they  were  leading.  It  was  his  habit 
frequently  to  attend  the  sessions  of  the  General  Assembly, 
and,  though  he  held  no  official  connection  with  the  gov- 
ernment, his  position  in  the  colony  enabled  him  to  exert 
a  wide  influence  upon  the  popular  mind,  and  rendered  his 
advice  and  sanction  exceedingly  important  in  the  decision 
of  every  question  of  great  public  interest. 

Thus  far  in  the  contest,  the  opposition  which  had  mani- 
fested itself  to  the  measures  of  the  ministry  in  the  several 
colonies  had  resulted  from  accidental  causes,  rather  than 
from  any  concerted  plan  which  had  been  agreed  upon  for 
the  purpose.  The  state  of  the  question,  however,  had 


138  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

now  become  such  that  some  arrangement  for  circulating 

o  o 

important  intelligence  and  for  promoting  unity  of  action 
was  absolutely  essential.  For  this  purpose,  the  House  of 
Burgesses  of  Virginia,  on  the  12th  of  March,  1773,  ap- 
pointed a  standing  committee  of  correspondence  and  in- 
quiry, whose  duty  it  should  be  to  obtain  the  earliest  intel- 
ligence of  all  measures  of  the  British  government  relating 
to  America,  and  to  maintain  a  correspondence  with  such 
committees  as  should  be  appointed  for  a  similar  purpose 
by  the  other  colonies,  to  whom  the  adoption  of  the  meas- 
ure was  earnestly  recommended.  The  recommendation  of 
Virginia  was  immediately  adopted  by  the  Assembly  of 
Rhode  Island  at  its  session  in  the  following  May,  and 
seven  of  the  leading  citizens  of  the  colony  were  appointed 
a  committee  of  correspondence,  one  of  whom  was  Mr. 
Henry  Ward,  a  younger  brother  of  the  Governor,  at  that 
time  holding  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State. 

From  this  period  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island  was 
among  the  foremost  in  activity  and  zeal,  both  in  devising 
and  executing  measures  for  the  promotion  of  the  common 
cause.  Soon  after  these  arrangements  had  been  adopted 
for  securing  a  greater  unity  of  sentiment  and  of  action 
among  the  colonies,  the  shipment  of  several  cargoes  of  tea 
was  made  by  the  East  India  Company  to  some  of  the 
American  ports,  and  serious  apprehensions  were  enter- 
tained by  many  of  the  friends  of  liberty  in  Rhode  Island 
that  boxes  of  the  obnoxious  article  might  be  clandestinely 
entered  at  Newport.  In  order  to  provide  against  such 
an  occurrence,  and  to  secure  a  more  perfect  organization 
throughout  the  colony,  Governor  Ward,  in  December, 
1773,  a  few  days  after  the  destruction  of  the  tea  at  Bos- 
ton, addressed  a  letter,  signed  by  himself  and  several 
others  of  the  inhabitants  of  Westerly,  to  some  of  the 
leading  gentlemen  of  Newport,  urging  the  establishment 
of  a  committee  of  correspondence  in  each  of  the  towns  of 


SAMUEL    WARD.  139 

the  colony,  and  suggesting  that  Newport,  as  the  seat  of 
the  government  and  the  emporium  of  trade,  should  take 
the  lead  in  carrying  forth  the  measure. 

This  letter,  which  breathes  the  spirit  of  a  cautious  and 
wise  man,  who  clearly  saw  the  storm  that  was  gathering 
over  the  colonies,  was  submitted  to  the  people  of  Newport 
at  a  town  meeting ;  and  the  suggestions  it  contained  were 
soon  afterwards  adopted  and  carried  into  effect.  He  also 
addressed  similar  letters  to  leading  men  in  other  towns  of 
the  colony  ;  and  early  in  February,  1774,  having  himself 
accepted  the  post  of  chairman  of  the  committee  of  corre- 
spondence of  the  town  of  Westerly,  he  introduced  a  series 
of  resolutions,  at  a  meeting  of  the  town,  which,  taken  as  a 
whole,  form  a  complete  embodiment  of  the  principles  main- 
tained by  the  colonies,  and  of  the  grounds  upon  which  they 
rest.  For  the  purpose,  as  is  probable,  of  instructing  the 
citizens  of  the  town  respecting  the  cause  in  which  they 
were  embarked,  the  resolutions  recited  very  fully  the  griev- 
ances which  were  complained  of,  and  earnestly,  yet  calmly, 
urged  resistance  as  the  only  remedy  which  was  left,  and 
as  a  high  civic  duty,  which  they  owed  not  less  to  them- 
selves than  to  the  whole  British  empire  and  to  posterity. 

The  English  ministry  had  already  become  thoroughly 
incensed  at  the  spirit  which  the  colonies,  especially  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay,  had  constantly  evinced  towards  all  their 
measures  for  raising  a  revenue  in  America ;  and,  on  re- 
ceiving intelligence  of  the  destruction  of  the  tea  at  Bos- 
ton, they  immediately  determined  to  avenge  the  insult 
which  had  been  offered  to  their  authority.  Accordingly, 
within  a  month  after  the  intelligence  was  received  at  Lon- 
don, they  carried  through  Parliament,  by  a  large  majority, 
the  three  celebrated  bills,  known  as  the  Boston  Port  Bill, 
the  Bill  for  the  better  regulating  of  the  Government  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  Bill  for  removing  persons  ac- 
cused of  certain  offenses  to  another  Colony,  or  to  England, 


140  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

for  trial.  These  famous  bills  were  regarded  as  special  acts 
of  ministerial  vengeance,  and  the  alarm  which  they  every- 
where occasioned  formed  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  the 
agencies  which  hastened  forward  the  crisis  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Instead  of  the  olive  branch  which  many  had  hoped 
to  see,  the  colonists  now  saw  that  only  a  naked  sword  was 
held  out  to  them. 

The  sufferings  of  the  people  of  Boston  became  a  sub- 
ject of  universal  sympathy,  and  a  general  Congress  of 
delegates  from  all  the  colonies  soon  began  to  be  talked 
of.  The  first  distinct  proposal  of  such  a  Congress,  how- 
ever, by  any  public  body,  it  is  believed,  was  made  by  the 
town  of  Providence,  at  a  meeting  held  on  the  17th  of  May, 
1774.  At  this  meeting,  the  deputies  of  the  town  were 
instructed  "  to  use  their  influence  at  the  approaching  ses- 
sion of  the  General  Assembly  of  this  colony,  for  promot- 
ing a  Congress,  as  soon  as  may  be,  of  the  representatives 
of  the  General  Assemblies  of  the  several  colonies  and 
provinces  of  North  America,  for  promoting  the  firmest 
union,  and  adopting  such  measures  as  to  them  shall  ap- 
pear the  most  effectual  to  answer  that  important  purpose, 
and  to  agree  upon  proper  methods  of  executing  the 
same."  l  The  citizens  of  Providence,  at  the  same  meet- 
ing, also  directed  the  committee  of  correspondence  to  as- 
sure the  people  of  Boston  of  the  sympathy  they  felt  for 
the  distressed  condition  of  that  town,  and  that  they  re- 
garded their  cause  as  the  common  cause  of  the  whole 
country. 

The  session  of  the  General  Assembly  was  held  at  New- 
port on  the  second  Monday  in  June ;  and  though  none 
of  the  other  colonies  had  at  this  time  taken  any  formal 
action  respecting  the  proposed  Congress,  yet  the  spirit  of 
its  members  was  already  prepared  to  respond  to  the  in- 

1  Staples's  Annals  of  Providence,  p.  235.  This  date  is  four  days 
earlier  than  the  action  of  any  other  public  body  on  the  subject. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  141 

structions  of  the  deputies  from  Providence.  The  subject 
was  taken  up  at  the  beginning  of  the  session,  and,  after 
mature  consideration,  the  Assembly,  on  the  15th  of  June, 
adopted  a  series  of  resolutions  setting  forth  the  condition 
of  the  colonies,  and  declaring  that  a  convention  of  repre- 
sentatives from  them  all  ought  to  be  holden  as  soon  as 
practicable.  By  the  same  resolutions,  Stephen  Hopkins 
and  Samuel  Ward  were  appointed  to  represent  the  col- 
ony, and  were  specially  directed  "  to  endeavor  to  pro- 
cure a  regular  annual  convention  of  representatives  from 
all  the  colonies."  In  this  vote,  which  was  adopted  with 
great  unanimity,  all  party  feuds  were  buried  forever; 
and  the  political  leaders  who,  in  former  years,  had  so 
often  been  arrayed  against  each  other  were  henceforth 
to  be  united  as  friends  and  fellow-patriots  in  the  council 
that  planned  the  Revolution.  In  this  council  their  ap- 
pointment bore  the  earliest  date  among  those  of  all  its 
members ;  and,  until  separated  by  death,  it  is  believed, 
they  shared  each  other's  confidence  and  sympathy  in  all 
the  arduous  duties  in  which  they  were  engaged.1 

The  views  with  which  Mr.  Ward  accepted  the  impor- 
tant trust  that  was  now  committed  to  him  were  of  the 
gravest  and  most  serious  character.  He  was  no  frantic 
patriot,  who  supposed  that  vaporing  resolutions  and  ex- 
citing speeches  were  all  that  was  needed  for  the  crisis 
which  he  saw  was  approaching.  A  large  acquaintance 
with  human  nature  made  him  distrust  the  hope,  which 
many  entertained,  that  the  determinations  of  the  ministry 
would  be  changed  by  any  remonstrances  or  threatenings 

1  The  delegates  from  Massachusetts  were  appointed  on  the  17th  of 
June,  which  has  generally,  though  erroneously,  been  considered  as 
the  date  of  the  earliest  appointment.  So  far  as  is  now  known,  it  was 
at  a  Rhode  Island  town  meeting  that  the  first  public  proposal  of  a 
Congress  was  made,  and  at  a  session  of  the  Rhode  Island  Assembly 
that  the  first  delegates  to  that  Congress  were  appointed. 


142  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

of  the  colonies ;  and  the  religious  sentiments  which  he 
had  early  imbibed,  and  which  were  now  woven  into  all 
his  reflections,  imparted  a  deeply  moral  aspect  to  all  the 
questions  which  were  likely  to  be  presented  to  the  body 
to  which  he  had  been  appointed.  But  he  had  already 
decided  on  which  side  the  right  certainly  lay,  and  he  did 
not  waver  from  the  decision  to  which  he  had  come.  In 
a  letter  to  his  brother,  written  in  the  following  year,  but 
referring  to  this  period,  he  says  of  himself :  — 

"  When  I  first  entered  this  contest  with  Great  Britain,  I  ex- 
tended my  views  through  the  various  scenes  which  my  judg- 
ment, or  imagination  (say  which  you  please),  pointed  out  to 
me.  I  saw  clearly  that  the  last  act  of  this  cruel  tragedy  would 
close  in  fields  of  blood.  I  have  traced  the  progress  of  this  un- 
natural war  through  burning  towns,  devastation  of  the  coun- 
try, and  every  subsequent  evil.  I  have  realized,  with  regard  to 
myself,  the  bullet,  the  bayonet,  and  the  halter ;  and,  compared 
with  the  immense  object  I  have  in  view,  they  are  all  less  than 
nothing.  No  man  living,  perhaps,  is  more  fond  of  his  children 
than  I  am,  and  I  am  not  so  old  as  to  be  tired  of  life  ;  and  yet, 
as  far  as  I  can  now  judge,  the  tenderest  connections  and  the  most 
important  private  concerns  are  very  minute  objects.  Heaven 
save  my  country,  I  was  going  to  say,  is  my  first,  my  last,  and 
almost  my  only  prayer." 

The  delegates  of  the  several  colonies  were  at  length 
all  chosen,  and  the  place  was  fixed  upon  at  which  the 
Congress  should  assemble.  Mr.  Ward  left  his  home 
about  the  middle  of  August,  attended  by  a  faithful  family 
servant,  and  arrived  at  the  place  of  meeting  on  the  30th 
of  the  same  month.  The  journey  was  made  on  horse- 
back, and,  on  the  day  after  his  arrival,  he  acknowledged 
with  pious  gratitude,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  his  children, 
the  kind  Providence  which  had  watched  over  him  amidst 
the  perils  of  the  way.  On  the  morning  of  the  5th  of 
September,  1774,  the  "  Old  Congress,"  as  it  is  now  famil- 


SAMUEL    WARD.  143 

iarly  known  in  our  history,  commenced  its  sessions,  in 
Carpenter's  Hall,  in  Philadelphia.  The  place  but  ill  cor- 
responded with  the  real  magnitude  of  the  occasion.  No 
tapestry  bedecked  its  walls,  no  images  of  sages  and  heroes 
of  other  days  looked  down  upon  the  scene.  Yet,  to  one 
who  could  read  the  future,  it  would  have  presented  a  sim- 
ple grandeur,  such  as  we  may  now  }ook  for  in  vain  within 
the  majestic  halls  of  the  Capitol  and  amidst  the  imposing 
forms  of  the  Constitution. 

The  forty-four  individuals  who  met  on  that  day  for  the 
first  time,  were  men  of  different  characters  and  different 
opinions,  for  they  had  come  from  the  extremes  of  the  con- 
tinent ;  but  they  came  together  unfettered  by  partisan  or 
sectional  feeling.  The  simple  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania, 
the  high-spirited  Cavaliers  of  Virginia  and  Carolina,  and 
the  resolute  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut, 
all  were  represented  in  that  body  of  grave  and  earnest- 
minded  men ;  yet,  amidst  all  differences  of  temperament, 
of  creed,  and  of  opinion,  the  pervading  sentiment  was 
catholic  and  patriotic.  They  had  been  roused  from  the 
repose  of  their  homes  by  common  grievances,  and  they 
only  sought  a  common  redress. 

Their  resolution  of  secrecy,  the  first  which  they  adopted 
after  their  organization,  was  so  sacredly  kept  that  a  veil 
has  rested  upon  their  proceedings  to  this  day,  which  even 
the  publication  of  their  "  Secret  Journal "  has  aided  us 
but  little  in  removing.  But  tradition  has  reported  the 
eloquence  of  their  debates,  and  the  recorded  results  which 
they  achieved  fully  show  that  their  daily  sessions  were 
seasons  of  unremitted  deliberation  upon  the  questions  be- 
fore them.  Among  the  different  classes  of  measures  which 
were  proposed  to  the  Congress,  Mr.  Ward,  if  we  may 
judge  from  the  occasional  allusions  in  his  correspondence, 
was  always  an  advocate  of  the  moderate  counsels  which 
so  eminently  characterize  its  published  documents.  Cooler 


144  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

and  more  quiet  in  his  temperament  than  some  others  of 
the  New  England  delegates,  while  he  regarded  a  separa- 
tion from  the  mother  country  as  sooner  or  later  inevitable, 
he  was  still  in  favor  of  first  trying  every  pacific  measure, 
and  of  thus  placing  the  cause  in  the  best  possible  light, 
both  before  the  colonies  and  the  world. 

The  Congress  closed  its  session  on  the  26th  of  October, 
after  appointing  another  session  to  be  held  on  the  10th 
day  of  the  following  May,  unless  the  public  grievances 
should  be  removed  before  that  time.  The  results  of  its 
six  weeks'  deliberation  were  then  probably  but  imperfectly 
comprehended,  even  by  those  of  its  members  who  looked 
farthest  into  the  vista  of  the  future.  The  consultations 
which  were  held  and  the  friendships  which  were  formed, 
blending  with  the  common  interests  and  common  dangers 
of  the  whole  country,  became  enduring  bonds  of  union  to 
the  colonies,  which  no  subsequent  differences  of  opinion, 
nor  all  the  gloomy  disasters  of  the  Revolution,  were  able 
to  break  asunder. 

The  delegates  from  Rhode  Island  returned  immediately 
to  their  homes  ;  and  at  a  meeting  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, called  specially  for  the  purpose,  they  made  a  full 
report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Congress.  Its  several 
acts  were  unanimously  approved,  and  the  delegates,  hav- 
ing received  the  thanks  of  the  Assembly,  were  immedi- 
ately appointed  to  attend  the  next  Congress,  and  charged 
with  suitable  instructions  as  to  the  objects  to  be  accom- 
plished. 

Before  the  meeting  of  the  second  Congress,  the  fields 
of  Lexington  had  been  reddened  with  blood,  spilt  in  the 
earliest  engagement  of  the  Revolution.  Tidings  of  the 
battle  were  received  in  Rhode  Island  on  the  evening  of 
the  19th  of  April,  and  companies  from  the  northern  towns 
of  the  colony  made  immediate  preparation  to  march  to  the 
assistance  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts.  On  the  22d 


SAMUEL    WARD.  145 

of  the  same  month,  a  special  session  of  the  Assembly  was 
held  at  Providence,  and  acts  were  passed  for  putting  the 
colony  in  a  posture  of  defense,  and  for  raising  fifteen  hun- 
dred men,  to  act  with  similar  quotas  from  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut,  as  an  army  of  observation.  At  the  same 
session,  Nathanael  Greene  was  advanced  from  the  station 
of  a  private  in  the  Kentish  Guards,  the  company  of  his 
native  town,  to  the  rank  of  Brigadier-General,  and  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  troops  from  Rhode  Island. 

To  these  spirited  proceedings  of  the  Assembly,  the 
Governor,  Mr.  Joseph  Wanton,  and  the  Deputy-Governor, 
and  several  of  the  Assistants,  entered  a  formal  protest,  on 
the  ground  that  they  were  unnecessary,  and  might  still 
further  disturb  the  relations  of  the  colonies  with  the 
mother  country.  But,  in  an  emergency  like  this,  the  pro- 
test of  men  who  had  been  intrusted  with  the  government 
of  the  colony  was  not  to  be  endured  by  the  people.  So 
high  was  the  excitement  among  the  members  of  the  As- 
sembly that  the  Deputy-Governor  and  the  recreant  As- 
sistants were  obliged  to  resign  their  places ;  and  the  Gov- 
ernor, though  he  had  just  before  been  elected  for  another 
term,  was  suspended  from  the  exercise  of  all  official  au- 
thority. A  few  months  afterwards,  the  office  was  taken 
from  Mr.  Wanton  by  an  act  of  the  Assembly,  and  be- 
stowed upon  Mr.  Nicolas  Cooke,  an  eminent  merchant  of 
Providence,  who  held  it  with  dignity  and  firmness  for 
three  successive  years,  during  the  most  trying  period  of 
the  Revolution. 

In  this  disordered  state  of  the  colonial  government,  the 
delegates  from  Rhode  Island  again  departed  to  join  the 
Congress  at  Philadelphia.  Their  credentials  bore  only 
the  signature  of  Henry  Ward,  Secretary  of  State,  whom 
the  legislature,  on  account  of  the  defection  of  the  Gov- 
ernor and  his  Deputy,  had  authorized  to  sign  the  public 
papers  of  the  colony.  Mr.  Ward  appeared  and  took  his 


146  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

seat  on  the  15th  of  May,  five  days  after  the  session  began. 
The  papers  relating  to  the  battle  of  Lexington  had  al- 
ready been  presented  by  Mr.  Hancock,  on  the  first  day  of 
the  session  ;  and,  in  promoting  the  measures  which  were 
now  proposed  for  the  defense  of  the  colonies  and  for  rais- 
ing and  equipping  troops,  he  engaged  with  the  utmost 
zeal.  His  son,  Samuel  Ward,  Junior,  who  had  been  re- 
cently graduated  at  Rhode  Island  College,  had  just  re- 
ceived a  captain's  commission  in  the  service  of  his  native 
colony ;  and  this  circumstance,  in  connection  with  the 
views  which  he  had  long  taken  of  the  nature  of  the  con- 
test and  the  necessity  of  preparing  for  the  worst,  may 
have  strengthened  his  interest  in  the  military  establish- 
ment of  the  country.  In  carrying  forward  all  these  mea- 
sures, Mr.  Ward  earnestly  cooperated  with  John  Adams, 
the  far-sighted  leader  of  the  New  England  delegations, 
who  at  this  very  time  was  writing  those  delightful  Letters, 
which  now  throw  so  much  light  upon  the  deliberations 
which  were  held  at  Philadelphia. 

On  the  26th  of  May,  when  the  House  resolved  itself 
into  a  committee  of  the  whole,  "  on  the  consideration  of 
the  state  of  America,"  Mr.  Ward  was  called  to  the  chair 
by  Mr.  Hancock,  who  had  then  just  been  elected  Presi- 
dent ;  and  from  this  time  onward  he  seems  to  have  been 
selected  to  preside  in  the  committee  of  the  whole,  when- 
ever the  Congress  gave  this  form  to  its  deliberations.  In 
this  situation  he  was,  of  course,  precluded  from  engaging 
in  the  debates  of  the  committee ;  but,  on  the  questions 
which  were  discussed  in  the  House  itself,  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  deliver  his  sentiments  with  manly  clearness  and 
earnest  eloquence.  Every  day's  deliberations  only  served 
to  unite  the  minds  of  all  the  delegates  in  the  opinion,  which 
a  few  had  entertained  from  the  beginning,  that  a  recon- 
ciliation was  not  to  be  expected,  and  that  vigorous  mea- 
sures must  immediately  be  adopted  for  defense  and  resist 


SAMUEL    WARD.  147 

ance.  This  sentiment  is  everywhere  expressed  in  the  let- 
ters of  Mr.  Ward,  written,  at  this  period,  to  his  friends 
in  Rhode  Island,  and  to  his  kinsman  General  Greene,  and 
his  son  Captain  Ward,  at  the  camp  before  Boston.  With 
these  and  some  other  officers  in  active  service  he  main- 
tained a  frequent  correspondence,  that  he  might  the  bet- 
ter ascertain  the  views  of  the  troops,  and  judge  of  the 
public  measures  needed  for  their  discipline  and  efficiency. 
General  Greene,  on  the  4th  of  June,  writes  to  him  his 
opinion  that  "  all  the  forces  in  America  should  be  under 
one  commander,  raised  and  appointed  by  the  same  au- 
thority, subjected  to  the  same  regulations,  and  ready  to 
be  detached  wherever  occasion  may  require ;  " 1  and  on 
the  15th  of  the  same  month,  we  find  in  the  Journal  of 
Congress  the  following  entry  :  — 

"  Agreeable  to  order,  the  Congress  resolved  itself  into  a  com- 
mittee of  the  whole,  and,  after  some  time,  the  President  re- 
sumed the  chair,  and  Mr.  Ward  reported  that  the  committee 
had  come  to  further  resolutions,  which  he  was  ordered  to  report. 
It  was  then  resolved,  That  a  General  be  appointed  to  command 
all  the  Continental  forces  raised,  or  to  be  raised,  for  the  defense 
of  American  liberty. 

"  The  Congress  then  proceeded  to  the  choice  of  a  General  by 
ballot,  and  George  Washington,  Esq.,  was  unanimously  elected." 

Though  the  full  importance  of  the  step  which  was  now 
taken  could  not  then  have  been  realized,  yet  there  were 
those  who  saw  clearly  that  they  had  staked  the  destiny  of 
the  colonies  upon  the  election  which  they  had  made.  Mr. 
Ward  had  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Washington  in  the 

1  The  same  letter  contains  the  following,  at  that  time,  remarkable 
passage  :  "  Permit  me,  then,  to  recommend,  from  the  sincerity  of  my 
heart,  ready  at  all  times  to  bleed  in  my  country's  cause,  a  declara- 
tion of  independence  ;  and  a  call  upon  the  world,  and  the  great  God 
who  governs  it,  to  witness  the  necessity,  propriety,  and  rectitude 
thereof." 


148  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

session  of  the  preceding  year,  and  appears  immediately 
to  have  conceived  for  him  that  sentiment  of  mingled  rev- 
erence and  esteem  which  his  character  never  failed  to 
inspire  in  every  ingenuous  mind.  The  vote  which  was 
adopted  a  few  days  after  the  election,  and  which  pledged 
the  delegates  to  maintain  and  assist  the  Commander-in- 
chief  with  their  lives  and  fortunes,  was  on  his  part  a 
pledge  of  the  deepest  and  sincerest  devotion.  A  month 
or  two  later,  in  a  letter  written  to  the  General  in  the 
hurry  of  public  business,  he  says  :  "  I  most  cheerfully  en- 
tered upon  a  solemn  engagement,  upon  your  appointment, 
to  support  you  with  my  life  and  my  fortune ;  and  I  shall 
most  religiously,  and  with  the  highest  pleasure,  endeavor 
to  discharge  that  duty." 

In  August,  1775,  the  Congress  took  a  recess  for  a 
month,  and  Mr.  Ward  passed  the  interval  with  his  family 
in  Rhode  Island.  During  this  period  he  also  attended  the 
meeting  of  the  General  Assembly,  and,  in  connection  with 
his  colleague,  Mr.  Hopkins,  made  a  report  to  that  body 
of  the  condition  of  the  colonies,  and  the  measures  which 
had  been  adopted  for  their  common  safety.  He  found 
the  people  of  Rhode  Island,  though  still  animated  with 
the  same  devotion  to  liberty,  yet  more  than  usually  dis- 
tressed at  the  depredations  of  the  ships  of  war  which  now 
covered  the  Narragansett  Bay,  and  frequently  sent  their 
tenders  marauding  along  its  shores.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  towns  of  the  colony  border  upon  navigable  waters, 
and  the  property  of  their  citizens  was  thus  continually 
exposed  to  the  incursions  of  an  enemy  who  had  full  pos- 
session of  the  harbor  of  Newport,  and  withal  was  not 
without  the  confidence  of  some  of  the  leading  citizens  of 
the  town. 

The  great  body  of  the  people,  however,  had  long  since 
espoused  the  American  cause,  though,  as  their  fidelity  had 
been  put  to  severer  tests  than  that  of  most  other  towns,  it 


SAMUEL    WARD.  149 

had  not  wholly  escaped  suspicion.  The  commerce,  which 
had  hitherto  supported  the  town,  within  a  single  year  had 
been  reduced  to  less  than  a  third  of  its  former  extent,  and 
the  sources  of  its  long-continued  prosperity  were  rapidly 
drying  up.  Mr.  Ward,  whose  sympathies  were  warmly 
enlisted  in  the  sufferings  of  his  native  town,  foreseeing  the 
doom  that  must  descend  upon  it  when  hostilities  should 
assume  a  still  sterner  aspect,  earnestly  advised  its  inhab- 
itants, who  were  true  to  the  country,  to  remove  their 
families  and  effects  to  other  parts  of  the  colony.  The 
people  of  Providence  also  offered  to  make  provision  for 
the  reception  and  support  of  some  hundreds  of  the  poor 
families  of  Newport.  The  proposal,  however,  seems  not  at 
the  time  to  have  been  generally  accepted ;  and  the  long 
possession  of  the  British  and  the  melancholy  desolations 
of  war  annihilated  the  prosperity  of  the  town,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  Revolution  left  nothing  of  her  former  glory 
save  the  changeless  beauties  of  nature  which  surround  her. 
For  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  trade  of  the  colony, 
the  General  Assembly,  in  June,  1775,  chartered  and 
equipped  two  vessels  of  considerable  force,  and  placed 
them  under  the  command  of  Abraham  Whipple,  to  whom 
was  given  the  title  of  Commodore.  He  also  received  pri- 
vate instructions  to  clear  the  bay  of  the  tenders  of  the 
British  frigate  Rose,  that  lay  at  its  mouth ;  and  in  his 
first  cruise,  after  a  slight  engagement,  the  first  concerted 
naval  engagement  of  the  Revolution,  he  captured  one  of 
the  tenders,  and  brought  her  to  Providence.  In  August 
this  armament  was  increased  by  the  addition  of  two  row 
galleys,  carrying  thirty  men  each ;  and,  on  the  26th  of 
that  month,  the  General  Assembly  adopted  a  resolution 
instructing  the  delegates  of  the  colony  "  to  use  their  whole 
influence,  at  the  ensuing  Congress,  for  building,  at  the 
Continental  expense,  a  fleet  of  sufficient  force  for  the 
protection  of  these  colonies,  and  for  employing  it  in  such 


150  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

manner  and  places,  as  will  most  effectually  annoy  our 
enemies,  and  contribute  to  the  common  defense  of  these 
colonies."  l 

This  resolution  was  the  earliest  proposal  for  a  Conti- 
nental navy.  It  was  the  natural  result  of  the  maritime 
experience  of  the  colony,  and  of  the  several  encounters  of 
her  citizens  with  the  cruisers  of  the  king.  The  annoy- 
ances which  they  had  thus  experienced  enabled  them  to 
appreciate  the  advantages  which  might  be  derived  from  a 
naval  armament,  and  their  familiarity  with  the  sea  led 
them  earnestly  to  engage  in  its  establishment. 

These  instructions  were  presented  to  the  Congress  on 
the  3d  day  of  October,  and  were  ordered  to  lie  upon  the 
table.  Several  vessels  of  different  force  were  soon  after- 
wards either  built  or  chartered  for  the  service  of  the  col- 
onies, and  Esek  Hopkins,  at  that  time  a  Brigadier-Gen- 
eral in  the  army  of  Rhode  Island,  was  appointed  to  the 
command  of  the  infant  navy.  He  repaired  to  Philadel- 
phia immediately  on  receiving  his  appointment,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1775,  and  in  the  following  February  sailed  with  the 
entire  fleet  on  an  expedition  against  one  of  the  Bermuda 
Islands.  The  expedition  seems  to  have  been  undertaken 
without  any  precise  orders  from  the  Congress,  and,  though 
in  some  respects  eminently  successful,  it  failed  to  receive 
their  entire  sanction. 

In  consequence  of  the  urgency  of  other  business,  the 
instructions  to  the  delegates  of  Rhode  Island  were  not 
taken  up  for  the  action  of  the  House  till  the  16th  of  No- 
vember, though  several  of  the  intervening  days  had  been 
assigned  for  their  consideration.  On  this  day  Mr.  Ward 
wrote  to  his  brother  in  Rhode  Island  :  "  Our  instruction 
for  an  American  fleet  has  been  long  upon  the  table. 
When  it  was  first  presented,  it  was  looked  upon  as  per- 

1  Staples's  Annals  of  Providence,  p.  265  ;  also  Schedules  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  Rhode  Island. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  151 

fectly  chimerical ;  but  gentlemen  now  consider  it  in  a  very 
different  light.  It  is  this  day  to  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion, and  I  have  great  hopes  of  carrying  it.  Dr.  Frank- 
lin and  Colonel  Lee,  the  two  Adamses,  and  many  others 
will  support  it.  If  it  succeeds,  I  shall  remember  your 
ideas  of  our  building  two  of  the  ships."  The  matter,  how- 
ever, seems  not  to  have  been  brought  to  a  final  determina- 
tion till  the  llth  of  December  ;  for  in  the  Journal  we  find 
the  following  entry  for  that  day  :  — 

"  Agreeable  to  the  order  of  the  day,  the  Congress  took 
into  consideration  the  instructions  given  to  the  delegates 
of  Khode  Island,  and  after  debate  thereon,  Resolved,  That 
a  committee  be  appointed  to  devise  ways  and  means  for 
furnishing  these  colonies  with  a  naval  armament,  and  re- 
port with  all  convenient  speed." 

This  committee  brought  in  their  report  on  the  13th  of 
December,  and  recommended  that  thirteen  ships,  five  of 
thirty-two  guns,  five  of  twenty-eight  guns,  and  three  of 
twenty-four  guns,  be  built  and  made  ready  for  sea  as  soon 
as  practicable.  The  report  of  the  committee,  after  being 
fully  debated,  was  adopted  by  the  Congress,  and  the  ships 
were  ordered  to  be  built  at  the  expense  of  the  united  col- 
onies. On  the  day  following  the  final  adoption  of  this 
measure,  Mr.  Ward  again  wrote  to  his  brother  :  "  I  have 
the  pleasure  to  acquaint  you  that,  upon  considering  our 
instructions  for  a  navy,  the  Congress  has  agreed  to  build 
thirteen  ships  of  war.  A  committee  is  to  be  this  day  ap- 
pointed, with  full  powers  to  carry  the  resolve  into  execu- 
tion. Powder  and  duck  are  ordered  to  be  imported.  All 
other  articles,  it  is  supposed,  may  be  got  in  the  colonies. 
Two  of  these  vessels  are  to  be  built  in  our  colony,  one  in 
New  Hampshire,  etc.  The  particulars  I  would  not  have 
mentioned.  The  ships  are  to  be  built  with  all  possible 
dispatch." 

We  have  thus  seen  that  the  first  establishment  of  a 


152  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

Continental  fleet  is  to  be  traced  back  to  the  instructions 
of  the  Rhode  Island  Assembly,  and  to  the  exertions  which 
were  made  in  obedience  to  them  by  the  delegates  of  the 
colony.  The  measure  was  on  every  account  an  impor- 
tant one,  and  the  merit  of  originating  and  supporting  it, 
at  that  opening  period  of  the  struggle  for  independence, 
ought  not  to  be  lightly  estimated.  It  is  alone  sufficient 
to  entitle  the  colony  to  an  honorable  distinction  in  the 
history  of  the  Revolution,  and  may  be  regarded  as  the 
early  pledge  of  the  brilliant  deeds  which  have  since  been 
achieved  by  her  sons  upon  the  decks  of  the  American 

navy. 

I 

IV. 

In  the  Journals  of  the  Continental  Congress  for  the 
session  of  1775,  and  the  early  part  of  the  following  year, 
few  names,  after  those  of  the  immediate  leaders  of  the 
Revolution,  are  more  frequently  mentioned  than  that  of 
Samuel  Ward.  Though  not  unused  to  debate,  it  is  prob- 
able that  his  most  important  services  were  performed  in  a 
less  conspicuous  sphere  of  action.  Indeed,  the  real  work 
of  such  bodies  is  usually  accomplished  away  from  the 
scenes  of  brilliant  oratory,  in  the  confinement  of  the  com- 
mittee room  or  the  seclusion  of  the  private  chamber, 
where  business  is  prepared  and  plans  of  public  policy  are 
elaborated  and  matured.  Of  this  class  of  labors  Mr. 
Ward  sustained  a  large  share.  He  entered  into  the  duties 
of  his  station  with  a  patriotic  zeal,  that  shrank  from  no 
sacrifice  of  personal  ease,  however  great  it  might  be.  He 
was  exceedingly  regular  in  his  attendance  upon  the  House, 
and  uniformly  accepted,  without  hesitation,  every  work 
which  was  assigned  to  him  to  perform. 

After  the  reassembling  of  the  Congress  in  September, 
in  addition  to  the  service  he  almost  daily  rendered  in  the 
chair  of  the  committee  of  the  whole,  he  was  appointed  a 


SAMUEL    WARD.  153 

member  of  the  secret  committee,  to  contract  for  arms  and 
munitions  of  war,  and  of  this  committee  he  was  subse- 
quently chosen  chairman.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the 
standing  committee  on  claims  and  accounts  ;  a  post  which 
required  his  attention  to  an  infinite  number  of  details,  and 
which  compelled  him  to  become  conversant  with  all  the 
operations  of  the  army,  and  with  the  services  performed 
by  each  of  the  respective  colonies. 

In  addition  to  these  two  appointments,  each  of  them  of 
the  most  arduous  and  confining  nature,  he  served  upon  a 
large  number  of  special  committees,  some  of  which  were 
charged  with  the  most  delicate  and  responsible  duties. 
His  colleague,  Mr.  Hopkins,  was  at  this  time  disabled 
from  writing,  on  account  of  physical  infirmity ;  and  the 
official  correspondence  of  the  delegation  with  the  gov- 
ernment and  the  citizens  of  the  colony  was  thus  thrown 
wholly  upon  Mr.  Ward.  To  the  close  confinement  thus 
imposed  upon  him  by  the  duties  of  his  station  he  makes 
frequent  allusions  in  the  familiar  letters  addressed  to  his 
family.  In  one  of  these,  written  in  the  month  of  October, 
he  says  :  "  I  am  almost  worn  out  with  attention  to  busi- 
ness. I  am  upon  a  standing  committee  of  claims,  which 
meets  every  morning  before  Congress,  and  upon  the  secret 
committee,  which  meets  almost  every  afternoon ;  and 
these,  with  a  close  attendance  upon  Congress  and  writing 
many  letters,  make  my  duty  very  hard,  and  I  cannot  get 
time  to  ride  or  take  other  exercise.  But  I  hope  the  busi- 
ness will  not  be  so  pressing  very  long." 

Our  own  times  are  so  remote  from  the  period  of  the 
American  Revolution  that  we  often  are  able  to  gain  only 
an  imperfect  idea  of  the  questions  which  perplexed  the 
patriots  of  that  day,  or  of  the  personal  feelings  with  which 
they  regarded  the  scenes  that  were  passing  before  them. 
There  were  among  them  men  of  every  hue  of  character 
and  every  degree  of  decision ;  men  who  were  prompted 


154  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

by  impetuous  temperaments,  by  selfish  hopes,  and  by  a 
high  sense  of  duty ;  men  who  were  timid  champions  of 
the  cause  and  were  always  hoping  for  a  reconciliation,  and 
those  who  staked  their  all  upon  the  issue,  who  early  saw 
that  reconciliation  was  impossible,  and  were  only  waiting 
for  the  separation  which  they  believed  to  be  inevitable. 
In  which  of  these  classes  of  the  patriots,  who  composed 
the  Congress  of  the  Confederation,  Governor  Ward  de- 
serves to  be  ranked  has  already  been  indicated ;  it  may, 
however,  be  more  fully  seen  by  the  following  extracts  from 
familiar  letters  written  to  his  brother  in  Rhode  Island, 
during  the  autumn  of  1775.  On  the  30th  of  September 
he  writes :  — 

"  No  news  from  England  since  my  last.  The  gentlemen  of 
Georgia  deserve  the  character  I  gave  you  of  them  ;  they  are 
some  of  the  highest  sons  of  liberty  I  have  seen,  and  are  very 
sensible  and  clever.  Mr.  Wythe  and  Mr.  Lee,  of  Virginia, 
have  been  under  inoculation  since  my  last,  so  that  I  can  say 
no  more  of  these  than  I  did  then.  Saving  that  unhappy  jea- 
lousy of  New  England,  which  some  weak  minds  are  possessed 
with,  great  unanimity  prevails  in  Congress ;  our  measures  are 
spirited,  and  I  believe  we  are  now  ready  to  go  every  length  to 
secure  our  liberties.  John  Adams's  letter  l  has  silenced  those 
who  opposed  every  decisive  measure  ;  but  the  moderate  friends. 
or,  as  I  consider  them,  the  enemies  of  our  cause,  have  caused 
copies  of  it  to  be  sent  throughout  the  province,  in  hopes,  by  rais- 
ing the  cry  of  independence,  to  throw  the  friends  of  liberty  out 
of  the  new  Assembly,  the  choice  of  which  commences  next  Mon- 
day ;  but  I  believe  they  will  fail,  and  that  the  House  will  be 

1  Two  of  the  private  letters  of  John  Adams  had  been  intercepted 
and  published.  The  originals  were  sent  to  England,  and  are  now  in 
the  State  Paper  Office  in  London.  Mr.  Sparks  has  published  ex- 
tracts from  the  originals,  in  Washington's  Writings,  vol.  ii.  p.  499. 
The  one  referred  to  in  the  text  was  addressed  to  James  Warren,  then 
President  of  the  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts.  See,  also, 
John  Adams's  Letters  to  his  Wife,  vol.  i.  p.  268. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  155 

more  decided  than  ever.  One  comfort  we  have,  that  divine 
wisdom  and  goodness  often  bring  good  out  of  ill.  That  the 
issue  of  this  same  contest  will  be  the  establishment  of  our  lib- 
erties I  as  firmly  believe  as  I  do  my  existence  ;  for  I  never  can 
think  that  God  brought  us  into  this  wilderness  to  perish,  or, 
what  is  worse,  to  become  slaves,  but  to  make  us  a  great  and  free 
people." 

On  the  2d  of  November  he  writes  again  in  a  strain 
equally  characteristic :  — 

"  The  evening  before  last,  two  ships  arrived  from  England. 
The  advices  which  they  bring  (amongst  which  is  a  proclamation 
for  suppressing  rebellion  and  sedition)  are  of  immense  service  to 
us.  Our  councils  have  been  hitherto  too  fluctuating :  one  day, 
measures  for  carrying  on  the  war  were  adopted  ;  the  next,  noth- 
ing must  be  done  that  would  widen  the  unhappy  breach  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  colonies.  As  these  different  ideas  have 
prevailed,  our  conduct  has  been  directed  accordingly.  Had  we, 
at  the  opening  of  the  Congress  in  May,  immediately  taken  proper 
measures  for  carrying  on  the  war  with  vigor,  we  might  have 
been  in  possession  of  all  Canada,  undoubtedly,  and  probably  of 
Boston.  Thank  God,  the  happy  day  which  I  have  long  wished 
for  is  at  length  arrived  :  the  southern  colonies  no  longer  enter- 
tain jealousies  of  the  northern ;  they  no  longer  look  back  to 
Great  Britain ;  they  are  convinced  that  they  have  been  pursuing 
a  phantom,  and  that  their  only  safety  is  a  vigorous,  determined 
defense.  One  of  the  gentlemen,  who  has  been  most  sanguine 
for  pacific  measures,  and  very  jealous  of  the  New  England  colo- 
nies, addressing  me  in  the  style  of  '  Brother  Rebel,'  told  me 
he  was  now  ready  to  join  us  heartily.  '  We  have  got,'  says  he, 
'  a  sufficient  answer  to  our  petition  ;  I  want  nothing  more,  but 
am  ready  to  declare  ourselves  independent,  send  ambassadors,' 
etc.,  and  much  more  which  prudence  forbids  me  to  commit  to 
paper.  Our  resolutions  will  henceforth  be  spirited,  clear,  and 
decisive.  May  the  Supreme  Governor  of  the  universe  direct 
and  prosper  them ! 

"  The  pleasure  which  this  unanimity  gives  me  is  inexpressible. 
I  consider  it  a  sure  presage  of  victory.  My  anxiety  is  now  at 


156  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

an  end.  I  am  no  longer  worried  with  contradictory  resolutions, 
but  feel  a  calm,  cheerful  satisfaction  in  having  one  great  and 
just  object  in  view,  and  the  means  of  obtaining  it  certainly,  by 
divine  blessing,  in  our  own  hands." 

Congress  was  at  this  time  exceedingly  perplexed  and 
embarrassed  on  account  of  the  condition  of  the  army,  the 
headquarters  of  which  were  at  Watertowu,  in  Massachu- 
setts. The  troops  had  been  enlisted,  and  brought  into 
the  service,  under  the  authority  of  the  colonies  to  which 
they  respectively  belonged ;  and  the  conditions  of  their 
enlistment,  and  the  periods  for  which  they  were  engaged 
to  serve,  were  exceedingly  various.  Even  after  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  Commander-in-chief  and  the  other  gen- 
eral officers,  and  the  commencement  of  the  Continental 
system,  the  men  were  still  unwilling  to  serve  far  from 
home,  or  under  any  other  than  their  own  officers.  The  let- 
ters which  General  Washington  addressed  to  the  Congress, 
at  this  period,  contain  frequent  allusions  to  the  difficulties 
he  constantly  encountered  in  the  arrangement  of  the  army. 
In  addition  to  the  information  thus  communicated,  Gov- 
ernor Ward  held  a  correspondence  with  General  Greene, 
from  whom  he  obtained  the  most  accurate  views  respect- 
ing its  actual  condition  and  the  difficulties  inherent  in  its 
organization.  His  own  letters  are  full  of  expressions  of 
the  solicitude  he  felt  upon  this  subject,  and  they  often 
refer  to  efforts  which  he  made  to  induce  Congress  to  take 
some  decisive  measures  for  averting  the  evils  which 
threatened  the  service  of  the  country.1 

The  councils  of  that  body,  however,  were  far  from  being 
unanimous  respecting  the  extent  to  which  the  Continen- 
tal system  should  be  carried.  Not  a  few  of  its  members 
were  exceedingly  jealous  of  anything  like  an  abridgment 

1  See  Johnson's  Sketches  of  the  Life  and  Character  of  General  Greene, 
vol.  i.  p.  35  et  seq. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  157 

of  the  authority  of  the  colonial  governments,  while  others 
were  for  merging  the  whole  of  that  authority,  so  far  as 
the  common  cause  was  concerned,  in  the  new  central 
power  which  the  exigencies  of  the  times  had  called  into 
being.  These  differences  of  opinion,  and  the  feelings  of 
jealousy  and  suspicion  which  were  connected  with  them, 
enhanced  the  difficulty  which  attended  the  remodeling  of 
the  army,  and  filled  the  minds  of  those  who  were  ac- 
quainted with  its  condition  with  the  gravest  apprehen- 
sions. Governor  Ward  was  heartily  in  favor  of  the  Con- 
tinental system,  and  earnestly  advocated  the  offering  of 
a  bounty  by  Congress  in  order  to  facilitate  the  enlist- 
ments; but  he  still  thought  that  the  attachment  of  the 
troops  to  their  respective  colonies  was  a  matter  too  impor- 
tant to  be  broken  up,  or  even  disregarded,  in  framing  the 
conditions  of  enlistment.  He  accordingly  was  exceedingly 
desirous  that  Congress,  in  building  up  its  authority  and 
in  regulating  the  military  service  of  the  country,  should 
avoid  everything  which  might  have  a  tendency  to  weaken 
the  attachment  which  the  soldiers  felt  for  the  colonies  to 
which  they  belonged. 

His  views  upon  this  subject  may  be  best  learned  from 
passages  contained  in  the  letters  which  he  addressed  to 
his  friends  during  the  autumn  of  1775,  especially  to  his 
brother,  the  Secretary  of  State  in  Rhode  Island.  To  this 
gentleman  he  writes,  on  the  21st  of  November  :  — 

"  By  letters  from  camp,  I  find  there  is  infinite  difficulty  in 
reenlisting  the  army.  The  idea  of  making  it  wholly  Continental 
has  induced  so  many  alterations,  disgusting  to  both  officers  and 
men,  that  very  little  success  has  attended  our  recruiting  orders. 
I  have  often  told  the  Congress  that,  under  the  idea  of  new- 
modeling,  I  was  afraid  we  should  destroy  our  army.  Southern 
gentlemen  wish  to  remove  that  attachment  which  the  officers 
and  men  have  to  their  respective  colonies,  and  make  them  look 
up  to  the  continent  at  large  for  their  support  or  promotion.  I 


158  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

never  thought  that  attachment  injurious  to  the  common  cause, 
but  the  strongest  inducement  to  people  to  risk  everything  in  de- 
fense of  the  whole,  upon  the  preservation  of  which  must  depend 
the  safety  of  each  colony.  I  wish,  therefore,  not  to  eradicate, 
but  to  regulate  it  in  such  a  manner  as  may  most  conduce  to  the 
protection  of  the  whole. 

"I  am  not  a  little  alarmed  at  the  present  situation  of  the 
army.  I  wish  your  utmost  influence  may  be  used  to  put  things 
upon  a  proper  footing,  and  must  beg  leave  through  you  to  recom- 
mend the  matter  to  the  immediate  attention  of  the  Governor. 
There  is  no  time  to  be  lost." 

The  letters  written  at  this  period  to  Governor  Ward  by 
General  Greene,  from  the  camp  near  Boston,  breathe  a 
similar  spirit,  and  contain  many  facts  which  were  un- 
doubtedly the  basis  of  the  views  above  given.  The  cor- 
respondence which  Washington  held  not  only  with  the 
Congress,  but  with  the  Governors  and  public  men  of  sev- 
eral of  the  colonies,  indicates  how  deep  was  his  anxiety 
on  account  of  the  condition  of  the  army,  and  how  gloomy 
a  period  the  autumn  of  1775  must  have  been  to  all  the 
far-sighted  patriots  of  the  Revolution.  It  is  from  such 
sources  as  these  tbat  we  derive  the  means  of  estimating 
aright  tbe  nature  of  the  attachment  which  the  people,  es- 
pecially in  New  England,  felt  for  the  respective  colonies 
to  which  they  belonged,  and  the  difficulty  with  which  this 
attachment  was  identified  with  their  interest  in  the  com- 
mon cause  of  resistance  to  the  ministry.  Though  great 
confidence  was  generally  reposed  in  the  wisdom  of  Con- 
gress, and  high  expectations  were  entertained  concerning 
the  results  of  its  deliberations,  yet  the  idea  of  a  Conti- 
nental sovereignty,  independent  of  the  authority  of  the 
colonies,  was  of  slow  growth  in  the  popular  mind,  and  the 
indistinctness  with  which  it  was  conceived  was  a  fertile 
source  of  embarrassment  and  confusion  in  the  early  stages 
of  the  Revolution. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  159 

But  events  were  steadily,  though  slowly,  advancing 
towards  the  consummation  which  a  few  had  anticipated 
from  the  beginning.  The  successive  arrivals  from  Eng- 
land only  confirmed  the  opinion  that  the  ministry  were 
determined  to  persevere  in  enforcing  the  measures  which 
they  had  adopted,  and  were  preparing  additional  forces  to 
decide  the  contest  by  the  sword,  in  the  approaching  spring. 
In  the  mean  time,  some  of  the  more  active  and  fearless 
spirits  in  the  colonies  had  conceived  the  idea  of  separa- 
tion ;  and  it  was  already  beginning  to  spread  among  the 
people,  though  there  might  still  be  found  those  who  fondly 
clung  to  the  hope  of  reconciliation.  The  wife  of  John 
Adams,  writing  from  the  heart  of  Massachusetts,  was  urg- 
ing separation  upon  the  mind  of  her  husband  with  all  the 
ardor  of  woman's  eloquence.  General  Greene,  in  his  let- 
ters to  Governor  Ward,  many  months  before,  had  begun 
to  recommend  a  declaration  of  independence,  and  had 
often  declared  that  the  people  were  beginning  to  wish  for 
it.  The  Congress,  however,  was  still  inactive  and  uncer- 
tain in  its  opinions.  The  subject  had  not  yet  been  dis- 
cussed, nor  had  the  word  "  Independence  "  been  uttered 
in  any  of  its  debates.  Its  members,  as  they  are  described 
in  the  letters  of  John  Adams,  sat  brooding  "  in  deep  anx- 
iety and  thoughtful  melancholy,"  with  only  rare  and  re- 
mote allusions  to  the  mighty  question,  and  waiting  for  the 
occurrence  of  some  critical  event  to  decide  their  course  of 
action. 

Governor  Ward,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  tone  of  his 
letters,  was  more  patient  of  this  delay  than  were  some 
others  of  the  delegates  from  New  England.  He  felt  con- 
fident that  independence  would  be  the  ultimate  destiny  of 
the  colonies ;  and,  when  the  troubles  on  account  of  the 
Stamp  Act  first  appeared,  he  had  often  predicted  this  re- 
sult in  the  friendly  intercourse  of  private  life.  His  most 
earnest  desire  was  to  see  the  different  portions  of  the 


160  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

country  united  in  the  maintenance  of  their  liberties,  and 
to  have  the  army  thoroughly  organized.  With  this  prep- 
aration, he  was  willing  patiently  to  wait  the  slow  progress 
of  events,  and  to  leave  the  issue  of  all  with  the  justice  of 
Heaven. 

The  colony  of  Rhode  Island  was  now  suffering  the 
worst  evils  consequent  upon  its  exposed  situation.  The 
ships  of  the  enemy,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Wal- 
lace, were  lying  along  all  its  shore,  and  parties  of  maraud- 
ers were  constantly  making  depredations  upon  the  prop- 
erty and  threatening  the  lives  of  the  inhabitants.  Bristol 
had  been  attacked,  and,  after  being  laid  under  heavy  con- 
tribution, was  nearly  destroyed.  The  islands  of  Couani- 
cut  and  Prudence  had  been  ravaged  with  more  than  usual 
brutality ;  and  the  town  of  Newport,  in  which  the  British 
commander  still  had  influential  friends  and  supporters, 
was  compelled  to  furnish  periodical  supplies  to  the  fleet, 
which  had  exclusive  control  of  the  harbor  and  the  adja- 
cent bay.  The  commerce  of  the  colony  was  entirely  pros- 
trate ;  some  of  the  wealthiest  inhabitants,  refusing  to  en- 
gage in  the  Revolution,  had  moved  away,  while  the  poor 
people,  who  remained,  were  reduced  to  the  extremity  of 
suffering  by  the  severity  of  the  winter,  the  scarcity  of  pro- 
visions, and  the  heavy  restrictions  which  were  placed  upon 
them.  So  large  a  portion  of  the  men  who  were  fit  for 
service  were  enlisted  in  the  Continental  army,  or  were 
otherwise  employed  away  from  home,  that  those  who  re- 
mained were  wholly  insufficient  for  the  protection  of  the 
long  line  of  sea-coast  which  bounded  a  large  part  of  the 
colony. 

In  this  general  distress  of  the  people,  the  Commander- 
in-chief,  at  the  request  of  the  Governor  of  Rhode  Island, 
sent  General  Lee  with  a  small  detachment  to  Newport,  to 
observe  the  condition  of  the  town,  and  recommend  such 
measures  for  its  relief  as  he  might  deem  practicable.  The 


SAMUEL    WARD.  161 

General  Assembly  passed  an  act  making  it  a  crime  for  any 
person  to  convey  intelligence  to  the  British  ministry  or 
their  agents,  to  supply  their  armies  or  fleets  with  arms  or 
military  stores,  or  to  serve  as  a  pilot  to  an  English  vessel  of 
war ;  and  providing  that  whoever  should  be  found  guilty 
of  the  offense  should  be  punished  with  death  and  the  con- 
fiscation of  estate.1  Several  persons,  who  had  rendered 
themselves  obnoxious  to  this  penalty,  and  who  refused  to 
make  any  promises  for  the  future,  were  taken  into  cus- 
tody, and  their  estates  declared  to  be  confiscated.  The 
Assembly  also  adopted  an  address  to  Congress,  in  which 
they  set  forth,  in  the  most  urgent  terms,  the  condition  of 
the  colony,  the  exertions  which  they  had  made,  and  were 
still  making,  for  its  defense,  and  their  inability  longer  to 
sustain  these  exertions,  or  to  keep  the  colony  from  falling 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  unless  they  should  receive 
timely  aid  from  Congress.  A  copy  of  this  address  was 
forwarded  to  Mr.  Ward  at  Philadelphia,  and  another  was 
sent  to  General  Washington,  with  a  request  that  he  would 
second  the  views  which  it  contained  by  such  recommenda- 
tion as  his  knowledge  of  the  colony  would  enable  him  to 
give.2 

1  The  town  of  Newport  was  excepted  in  this  act,  and,  under  cer- 
tain restrictions,  its  people,  in  accordance  with  their  own  request, 
were  allowed  to  furnish  supplies  to  the  ships  of  Captain  Wallace, 
which  lay  in  their  harbor.     This  was  suffered  as  a  measure  of  safety 
to  the  town,  though  its  expediency  was  called  in  question  in  other 
parts  of  the  colony,  and  by  General  Washington  in  his  letter  to  Gov- 
ernor Cooke.     Sparks's  Washington,  vol.  iii.  p.  227. 

2  This  address,   which  bears  the  date   of  January  15,  1776,  to- 
gether with  the  letter  from  General  Washington  to  the  President 
of  Congress  concerning  it,  is  contained  in  the  American  Archives, 
vol.  v.  p.  1148.     It  is  a  document  of  no  small  importance,  as  illus- 
trating the  exertions  and  the  sufferings  of  the  people  of  Rhode  Island 
at  this  early  stage  of  the  Revolution.     From  the  account  there  pre- 
sented, it  appears  that  the  colony,  besides  minutemen  and  militia 
not  yet  called  into  service,  had,  at  this  time,  not  less  than  3,743  sol- 


162  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

The  Commander-in-chief,  when  he  communicated  the 
paper  to  Congress,  fully  indorsed  the  statement  it  con- 
tained respecting  the  condition  of  the  colony  and  the  suf- 
ferings of  its  inhabitants,  and  expressed  his  conviction 
that  it  was  highly  necessary  that  measures  should  be 
adopted  to  relieve  their  distress  and  to  furnish  the  aid 
they  required.  The  delegates  of  Rhode  Island  did  not 
immediately  bring  the  address  to  the  public  attention  of 
Congress,  but  preferred,  according  to  the  instructions 
which  they  received  from  the  Governor  of  the  colony,  to 
consult  some  of  the  leading  members  upon  the  subject  in 
private.  A  few  weeks  afterwards.  Mr.  Ward  writes  to 
Governor  Cooke  that  "  this  had  been  done ;  and  from 
their  generous  concern  for  the  colony,  and  a  universal 
approbation  of  our  vigorous  exertions  for  the  common 
defense,  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  but  the  two  battalions 
raised  by  the  government  will  be  taken  into  Continental 
pay." 

The  countenance  which  was  received  from  General 
Washington  and  the  assurances  of  aid  from  Congress,  to- 
gether with  the  spirited  acts  of  the  Assembly,  gave  new 
energy  to  the  people  of  the  colony,  and  served  to  dissi- 
pate the  gloom  which  had  settled  around  their  prospects. 
In  Newport,  the  influential  men,  who  still  adhered  to  the 
ministry,  and  who  maintained  frequent  intercourse  with 
the  British  officers  attached  to  the  ships  in  the  harbor, 
were  thoroughly  humbled  by  the  visit  of  General  Lee  to 
the  town,  and  by  the  bold  stand  which  he  took  against 
them. 

diers  and  sailors,  exclusive  of  officers,  in  actual  service,  of  whom 
1,700  were  in  the  Continental  army,  and  at  least  200  more  were  on 
board  armed  vessels,  beyond  the  limits  of  the  colony.  The  whole 
population,  in  the  year  1774,  amounted  to  only  59,678  souls,  and  of 
these  5,243  were  Indians  and  Negroes.  The  number  of  families  • 
was  9,437. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  163 

The  peace  of  the  town,  however,  was  still  almost  en- 
tirely at  the  mercy  of  the  British  commander,  whose  nu- 
merous acts  of  insult  and  brutal  violence  in  different 
parts  of  the  colony  called  down  upon  his  name  and  char- 
acter the  direst  execrations  of  the  people.  In  his  moods 
of  malice,  which,  it  was  said,  were  made  more  vindictive 
by  frequent  intoxication,  he  would  often  ravage  the  shores 
of  Narragansett  Bay,  pillage  the  neighboring  farms  and 
hamlets,  and  sometimes  take  the  lives  of  the  inhabitants, 
in  a  manner  that  would  be  expected  only  of  the  outlaw 
chief  of  some  horde  of  pirates.  The  distresses  of  his 
native  colony,  and  especially  of  those  portions  of  it  with 
which,  from  infancy,  he  had  been  most  familiar,  enlisted 
the  deepest  sympathies  of  Governor  Ward,  and  the  nu- 
merous passages  in  his  letters  relating  to  the  subject  show 
how  earnest  were  the  efforts  he  made  for  their  relief,  both 
in  Congress  and  in  his  communications  to  the  colonial 
government. 

In  September,  1775,  a  detachment  of  eleven  hundred 
men  had  been  sent,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Bene- 
dict Arnold,  on  an  expedition  to  Canada,  for  the  purpose 
of  weakening  the  British  forces  stationed  there,  and  of 
conciliating  the  good  will  of  the  Canadians  towards  the 
cause  of  the  colonies.  When  volunteers  for  this  distant 
and  perilous  expedition  were  called  for  by  General  Wash- 
ington, two  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  troops  belonging  to 
Rhode  Island  had  presented  themselves  for  the  service. 
Among  them  was  Samuel  Ward,  Junior,  who,  as  we  have 
already  mentioned,  had  in  the  preceding  spring  received 
a  captain's  commission  in  the  Continental  army. 

Upon  the  formation  of  the  character  of  this  young  man, 
now  in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  age,  Governor  Ward  had 
bestowed  the  care  which  might  naturally  be  expected  of 
a  fond  and  high-minded  father.  Having  sent  him  to  re- 
ceive his  classical  education  at  the  College  of  Rhode  Isl- 


164  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

and,  he  had  seen  him  bear  its  highest  honors  at  the  period 
of  his  graduation,  and,  at  tbe  opening  of  the  Revolution, 
he  had  given  him  up,  the  hope  and  the  pride  of  his  fam- 
ily, to  the  service  of  his  country.  He  had  early  instilled 
into  his  mind  his  own  spirit  of  self-sacrificing  patriotism, 
and  had  constantly  enjoined  upon  him  the  practice  of  vir- 
tue and  the  fear  of  God. 

After  Captain  Ward  had  joined  the  camp  near  Boston, 
and  while  the  period  of  his  enlistment  was  still  undecided, 
his  father  wrote  to  him  a  letter  which  contains  a  full  ex- 
pression of  his  views  concerning  the  duty  which  a  citizen 
owes  his  country  in  times  of  calamity  or  distress. 

"  With  regard  [says  he]  to  your  engaging  in  the  public  ser- 
vice during  the  war,  my  sentiments  are  these :  that  so  long  as 
my  country  has  any  occasion  for  my  service,  and  calls  upon  me 
properly,  she  has  an  undoubted  right  to  it ;  and  I  shall  ever  es- 
teem it  the  highest  happiness  to  be  able,  in  times  of  general  dis- 
tress, to  do  her  any  material  good.  Upon  these  principles,  you 
will  give  me  the  highest  satisfaction  by  devoting  your  life,  while 
Heaven  graciously  continues  it,  to  the  public  service.  The  poet 
justly  said,  '  Didce  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori.'  I  can  as 
justly  add,  pro  patria  vivere." 

With  these  sentiments,  rendered  more  forcible  by  pa- 
rental example,  to  guide  his  conduct  in  the  army,  Cap- 
tain Ward  early  attracted  the  notice  of  the  Commander- 
in-chief,  and,  though  at  an  immature  age,  he  was  permit- 
ted to  join  the  troops  from  his  native  colony,  who  had 
been  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Christopher  Greene, 
in  the  expedition  to  Quebec.  Full  of  hope,  and  eager 
for  the  service  in  which  they  were  to  be  engaged,  the 
volunteers,  under  the  command  of  Arnold,  left  the  camp 
on  the  15th  of  September,  and  arrived  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Kennebec  River  on  the  20th  of  the  same  month. 
Here  they  commenced  their  march  through  an  untraveled 
wilderness,  amidst  the  severities  of  an  inclement  season, 


SAMUEL    WARD.  165 

without  provisions,  and  but  poorly  clad ;  and,  after  en- 
during hardships  such  as  were  scarcely  paralleled  in  all 
the  struggle  of  the  Revolution,  they  reached  the  bank  of 
the  St.  Lawrence,  opposite  Quebec,  on  the  15th  of  No- 
vember. A  few  days  from  this  date  he  writes  to  his  sis- 
ters at  Westerly :  — 

"  We  were  thirty  days  in  a  wilderness  that  none  but  savages 
ever  attempted  to  pass.  We  marched  one  hundred  miles  upon 
short  three  days'  provisions,  waded  over  three  rapid  rivers, 
marched  through  snow  and  ice  barefoot,  passed  over  the  St. 
Lawrence  where  it  was  guarded  by  the  enemy's  frigates,  and 
are  now  about  twenty-four  miles  from  the  city,  to  recruit  our 
worn-out  natures.  General  Montgomery  intends  to  join  us  im- 
mediately, so  that  we  have  a  winter's  campaign  before  us ;  but 
I  trust  we  shall  have  the  glory  of  taking  Quebec." 

This  expectation,  which  was  also  confidently  entertained 
both  in  Congress  and  at  the  camp  of  the  Commander-in- 
chief,  was  doomed  to  a  melancholy  disappointment.  A 
few  days  after  the  arrival  of  Arnold,  General  Montgom- 
ery joined  him  on  the  plains  before  Quebec,  with  three 
hundred  men  from  Montreal,  and  took  command  of  the 
expedition.  Though  the  force  was  still  too  small  for  the 
reduction  of  the  city,  yet  the  General,  relying  on  the  dis- 
position of  the  Canadians  to  favor  the  cause  of  the  Amer- 
icans, commenced  the  attack  on  the  morning  of  the  31st 
of  December.  The  event  proved  but  too  clearly  that  this 
reliance  was  wholly  misplaced.  The  heroic  commander 
fell  early  in  the  battle,  and  his  men  were  repulsed.  The 
detachment  led  by  Colonel  Arnold  was  engaged  at  another 
point  of  the  city.  It  had  already  forced  one  of  the 
barriers,  which  had  been  thrown  up  for  its  defense,  and 
was  approaching  a  second,  when  Arnold  was  borne 
wounded  from  the  ground.  The  troops,  however,  led  on 
by  Colonel  Greene,  were  still  maintaining  the  assault, 
when  they  were  attacked  in  the  rear,  and  their  retreat 


166  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

cut  off  by  a  party  of  the  enemy,  and  nearly  four  hundred 
of  them  were  made  prisoners.  Among  these  were  Cap- 
tain Ward  and  a  large  portion  of  the  company  under  his 
command. 

On  the  17th  of  January,  1776,  the  news  reached  Con- 
gress, by  despatches  from  General  Schuyler,  of  the  disas- 
trous fate  of  the  expedition  to  Quebec  and  of  the  fall 
of  Montgomery.  The  intelligence  was  received  with  no 
common  emotion.  A  brave  officer,  high  in  rank,  had 
been  snatched  from  the  service  of  the  country ;  and  the 
hopes  which  had  been  indulged,  that  the  people  of  Canada 
would  join  the  colonies  in  their  resistance  to  the  ministry, 
were  blighted  at  the  very  moment  when  they  were  the 
strongest  and  most  ardent.  But  in  the  mind  of  no  one 
in  Congress,  who  on  that  day  listened  to  the  melancholy 
recital  contained  in  the  letters  of  General  Schuyler,  was 
a  deeper  anxiety  excited  than  in  that  of  Governor  Ward. 
As  a  warm-hearted  patriot  he  mourned  the  loss  of  the 
gallant  General,  and,  with  a  father's  pride  and  a  father's 
solicitude,  he  learned  the  heroic  conduct  and  the  unhappy 
fate  of  his  son,  the  youthful  captain,  and  his  soldiers  from 
Rhode  Island.  He  was  immediately  appointed  one  of  the 
committee  to  whom  the  communications  of  General  Schuy- 
ler were  referred ;  and  on  the  21st  of  January,  so  soon  as 
the  duties  of  the  committee  had  been  discharged,  he  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  his  son  in  Canada,  which  will  illustrate 
his  character  both  as  a  patriot  and  a  father :  — 

MY  DEAR  SON,  —  I  most  devoutly  thank  God  that  you  are 
alive,  in  good  health,  and  have  behaved  well.  You  have  now 
a  new  scene  of  action,  to  behave  well  as  a  prisoner.  You  have 
been  taught  from  your  infancy  the  love  of  God,  of  all  mankind, 
and  especially  of  your  country ;  in  a  due  discharge  of  these  va- 
rious duties  of  life  consist  true  honor,  religion,  and  virtue.  I 
hope  no  situation  or  trial,  however  severe,  will  tempt  you  to  vio- 
late those  sound,  immutable  laws  of  God  and  nature.  You  will 


SAMUEL    WARD.  167 

now  have  time  for  reflection  ;  improve  it  well,  and  examine  your 
own  heart.  Eradicate,  as  much  as  human  frailty  admits,  the 
seeds  of  vice  and  folly.  Correct  your  temper.  Expand  the  be- 
nevolent feelings  of  your  soul,  and  impress  and  establish  the 
noble  principles  of  private  and  public  virtue  so  deeply  in  it  that 
your  whole  life  may  be  directed  by  them.  Next  to  these  great 
and  essential  duties,  improve  your  mind  by  the  best  authors  you 
can  borrow.  Learn  the  French  language,  and  be  continually 
acquiring,  as  far  as  your  situation  admits,  every  useful  accom- 
plishment. Shun  every  species  of  debauchery  and  vice,  as  cer- 
tain and  inevitable  ruin  here  and  hereafter.  There  is  one  vice 
which,  though  often  to  be  met  with  in  polite  company,  I  cannot 
but  consider  as  unworthy  of  a  gentleman  as  well  as  a  Christian. 
I  mean  swearing.  Avoid  it  at  all  times. 

All  ranks  of  people  here  have  the  highest  sense  of  the  great 
bravery  and  merit  of  Colonel  Arnold,  and  all  his  officers  and 
men.  Though  prisoners,  they  have  acquired  immortal  honor. 
Proper  attention  will  be  paid  to  them.  In  the  mean  time,  be- 
have, my  dear  son,  with  great  circumspection,  prudence,  and 
firmness.  Enter  into  no  engagements  inconsistent  with  your 
duty  to  your  country,  and  such  as  you  may  make  keep  inviolate 
with  the  strictest  honor.  Besides  endeavoring  to  make  yourself 
as  easy  and  comfortable  as  possible  in  your  present  situation, 
you  will  pay  the  greatest  attention,  as  far  as  your  little  power 
may  admit,  to  the  comfort  and  welfare  of  all  your  fellow-pris- 
oners, and  of  those  lately  under  your  immediate  command  es- 
pecially.1 

During  the  winter  of  1776,  the  attention  of  Congress 
was  earnestly  directed  to  preparation  for  the  campaign, 
which  it  was  expected  the  ensuing  spring  would  open 
upon  the  country.  The  fall  of  Montgomery  and  the  fail- 
ure of  the  expedition  to  Quebec  undoubtedly  had  a  ten- 
dency to  give  a  still  more  serious  air  to  their  delibera- 
tions. He  was  the  first  officer  of  the  Continental  army, 

1  The  letter  from  which  this  is  an  extract  was  published  in  the 
American  Annual  Register,  vol.  vii.  p.  407. 


168  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

high  in  rank,  who  had  fallen  in  the  service ;  and  the  fa- 
thers of  the  country  mourned  for  him,  as  for  one  who  had 
died  an  heroic  martyr  to  the  common  cause.  The  com- 
mittee who  were  appointed  to  consider  the  subject  made 
a  series  of  successive  reports,  which  resulted  in  sending  a 
deputation  from  Congress  to  visit  Canada,  and  in  rein- 
forcing the  army  which  was  stationed  there. 

The  military  operations  of  the  Continental  army  were 
also  greatly  extended  ;  new  posts  were  established,  and 
arrangements  set  on  foot  for  undertaking  the  defense  of 
the  entire  continent,  as  the  common  territory  of  all  the 
colonies  was  then  termed.  The  attitude  of  Congress, 
however,  had  not  changed.  It  was  still  that  of  deep  anx- 
iety and  painful  suspense,  in  which  its  members  were 
waiting  for  some  decisive  event  to  determine  the  course 
they  should  adopt.  Independence  was  only  mentioned 
in  the  privacy  of  familiar  intercourse,  or  in  the  corre- 
spondence of  confidential  friends.  In  the  hall  of  Con- 
gress the  word  had  not  yet  been  uttered.  But  among 
those  grave  and  thoughtful  men  suspense  was  not  a 
natural  state  of  mind,  and  it  could  not  long  continue. 
Beneath  the  solemn  exterior  which  they  presented  a  dis- 
cerning eye  might  detect  many  a  current  of  deep  and 
earnest  feeling,  whose  sure  and  silent  flow  was  bearing 
the  whole  body  insensibly  onward  to  some  mighty  crisis. 

These  were  the  settled  views  which  now  regulated  the 
conduct  and  shaped  the  opinions  of  Governor  Ward ;  and 
the  familiar  letters,  which  have  guided  us  in  framing  this 
memoir,  alone  can  show  how  deeply  he  was  interested  in 
the  plans  which  Congress  was  now  adopting,  and  in  the 
approach  of  the  events  which  he  felt  confident  were  has- 
tening on  by  the  appointment  of  a  destiny  which  no  earthly 
power  could  withstand.  He  also,  at  this  time,  as  was 
natural  from  the  troubled  condition  of  his  native  colony, 
experienced  great  anxiety  on  account  of  his  domestic  af- 


SAMUEL    WARD.  169 

fairs.  Eleven  children  had  survived  the  death  of  their 
mother,  which  took  place  in  1770.  Of  these,  one  had  died 
during  his  attendance  at  the  session  of  the  first  Congress. 
The  three  elder  sons  were  now,  in  imitation  of  their  fa- 
ther's example,  in  the  service  of  the  country,  two  of  them 
holding  places  in  the  army  and  one  in  the  navy.  The 
two  elder  daughters  were  recently  married,  and  the  re- 
maining children,  still  of  a  tender  age,  were  dwelling, 
without  the  protection  of  a  parent,  in  the  mansion  at 
Westerly,  in  one  of  the  most  exposed  situations  along  the 
coast  of  the  colony.  To  that  once  cheerful  and  happy 
home  of  his  family  his  thoughts  would  often  revert,  and 
his  warm,  parental  affection  would  urge  him  to  abandon 
the  public  service,  that  he  might  watch  over  the  tender 
years  of  his  children,  and  save  from  wasting  and  decay 
the  beautiful  estate  which  his  industry  had  acquired. 

But  such  were  not  the  views  of  duty  which  became  a 
patriot  statesman  of  the  Revolution.  To  him  the  preseut 
was  of  little  importance  ;  the  future  was  all  in  all.  Never, 
perhaps,  in  the  history  of  mankind,  has  there  been  a  period 
distinguished  by  so  striking  instances  of  the  sacrifice  of 
every  private  interest  to  the  general  good.  The  individ- 
ual was  but  a  unit  in  the  mighty  mass,  whose  freedom 
and  happiness  were  of  immeasurable  importance.  It  was 
in  accordance  with  this  higher  sentiment  of  duty  to  his 
country  that  Governor  Ward  at  this  time  decided  against 
the  dictates  of  parental  affection,  and  resolved  to  remain 
in  the  Congress,  and  there  abide  the  issues  of  the  contest. 
In  the  month  of  February,  of  this  long  and  anxious  win- 
ter, he  thus  writes  to  the  sister  to  whom  he  had  especially 
committed  the  charge  of  his  family :  — 

"  When  I  consider  the  alarms,  the  horrors,  and  mischiefs 
of  war,  I  cannot  help  thinking  what  those  wretches  deserve 
who  have  involved  this  innocent  country  in  all  its  miseries.  At 
the  same  time,  I  adore  the  divine  wisdom  and  goodness  which 


170  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

often  overrules  and  directs  those  calamities  to  the  producing  of 
the  greatest  good.  This  I  humbly  hope  will  be  our  case.  We 
may  yet  establish  the  peace  and  happiness  of  our  native  coun- 
try upon  the  broad  and  never-failing  basis  of  liberty  and  virtue. 
"  When  I  reflect  upon  this  subject,  and  anticipate  the  glorious 
period,  the  dangers  of  disease,  the  inconveniences  experienced  in 
my  private  affairs,  the  almost  unparalleled  sufferings  of  Samuel,1 
and  all  that  my  dear  children  and  friends  do  or  can  suffer  ap- 
pear to  me  trifling.  I  am  sure  your  own  love  of  liberty  and 
your  fortitude  of  mind  will  not  only  support  you,  but  will  en- 
able you  to  encourage  and  support  all  around  you  in  the  hour 
of  danger.  My  dear  little  boys  and  girls,  I  know,  need  me 
much ;  but  my  duty  forbids  my  return.  I  can  only  recommend 
them  to  God,  to  you  and  my  other  sisters,  and  to  their  older  sis- 
ters. Do  all  you  possibly  can  to  encourage  them  in  the  paths  of 
virtue,  industry,  frugality,  and  neatness,  and  in  improving  their 
minds  as  far  as  their  situation  admits." 

Such  were  the  labors,  the  anxieties,  and  the  hopes 
which  occupied  the  mind  of  Governor  Ward,  when  death, 
coming  at  an  unexpected  hour,  suddenly  put  an  end  to 
them  all.  In  the  pressure  of  the  many  concerns  which 
had  engaged  his  attention  while  in  Congress,  he  had  neg- 
lected to  adopt  the  usual  preventive  against  the  small- 
pox, at  that  time  one  of  the  most  dreaded  of  the  diseases 
with  which  humanity  could  be  afflicted.  It  frequently 
appeared  with  great  malignity,  especially  in  the  large 
towns  of  the  country ;  and  Governor  Ward  had  received 
repeated  admonitions,  while  at  Philadelphia,  to  resort  to 
inoculation,  the  only  preventive  measure  at  that  time 
known ;  but  though,  as  would  appear  from  his  letters,  he 
dreaded  the  contagion  with  peculiar  apprehension,  he 
would  never  allow  himself  to  be  inoculated.2 

1  His  son,  Captain  Ward,  now  a  prisoner  at  Quebec. 

2  He  is  said  to  have  had  an  invincible  repugnance  to  this  mode  of 
taking  the  disease.     Indeed,  a  strong  prejudice  had  always  existed 
in  the  colonies  against  inoculation,  since  its  first  introduction  in  1721. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  171 

In  the  Journal  of  Congress  for  the  13th  of  March  is 
found  the  latest  mention  of  his  participation  in  the  busi- 
ness of  the  House.  On  that  day  he  presided  in  the  com- 
mittee of  the  whole,  through  a  protracted  discussion  of 
several  memorials  and  other  papers  relating  to  the  trade 
of  the  colonies,  and,  on  reporting  to  the  House  the  pro- 
gress of  the  debate,  obtained  leave  to  sit  again.  He  also 
accepted  an  appointment  as  a  member  of  a  special  com- 
mittee, which  was  instructed  to  devise  ways  and  means 
for  defraying  the  anticipated  expenses  of  the  campaign 
that  was  soon  to  open.  These  duties,  however,  were  not 
for  him  to  perform. 

On  the  two  following  days  he  was  still  in  his  place  in 
Congress,  with  his  characteristic  punctuality  and  devotion 
to  business.  From  this  time  his  seat  was  vacant.  The 
disease,  which  had  already  begun  to  be  felt  in  his  system, 
now  appeared  in  its  worst  malignity,  and  on  the  26th  of 
March,  1776,  put  an  end  to  his  useful  and  honorable  life, 
in  the  fifty-first  year  of  his  age.  In  the  published  "  Let- 
ters "  of  John  Adams,  the  event  is  thus  noticed  a  few  days 
after  it  happened :  — 

"  We  have  this  week  lost  a  very  valuable  friend  of  the  col- 
onies in  Governor  Ward,  of  Rhode  Island,  by  the  smallpox  in 
the  natural  way.  He  never  would  hearken  to  his  friends,  who 
have  been  constantly  advising  him  to  be  inoculated  ever  since 
the  first  Congress  began.  But  he  would  not  be  persuaded. 
Numbers  who  have  been  inoculated  have  gone  through  this 
distemper  without  any  danger,  or  even  confinement.  But  noth- 
ing would  do ;  he  must  take  it  in  the  natural  way,  and  die.  He 
was  an  amiable  and  a  sensible  man,  a  steadfast  friend  to  his 
country,  upon  very  pure  principles.  His  funeral  was  attended 

Vaccination  was  first  adopted  in  England,  by  Dr.  Jenner,  in  1798, 
and  was  introduced  into  America,  about  the  year  1800,  through  the 
agency  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Waterhouse,  a  native  of  Newport,  and  at 
that  time  a  lecturer  at  Harvard  College,  and  also  at  Brown  Uni- 
versity. 


172  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

with  the  same  solemnities  as  Mr.  Randolph's.  Mr.  Stillman, 
being  the  Anabaptist  minister  here,  of  which  persuasion  was  the 
Governor,  was  desired  by  Congress  to  preach  a  sermon,  which 
he  did  with  great  applause."  1 

He  was  interred  in  the  burial-place  of  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church,  amid  the  solemnities  of  religious  worship,  in 
the  presence  of  the  members  of  Congress,  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  and  a  large  concourse  of  the 
citizens  of  Philadelphia,  among  whom  his  amiable  man- 
ners and  exalted  character  had  won  for  him  many  admir- 
ing friends.  A  monument  was  ordered  to  be  erected  to 
his  memory  at  the  place  of  his  interment  by  a  vote  of 
Congress,  and  afterwards  by  an  act  of  the  General  As- 
sembly of  Rhode  Island. 

The  course  of  this  memoir  has  furnished  but  few  oppor- 
tunities to  refer  to  the  religious  opinions  or  the  religious 
character  of  Governor  Ward.  He  was,  however,  a  sin- 
cere and  humble  Christian.  He  was  connected,  as  were 
his  ancestors  before  him,  with  a  church  of  the  Sabbata- 
rian persuasion  ;  a  name  given  to  what  was  then  a  large 
and  highly  respectable  denomination  of  Christians  in 
Rhode  Island,  who  practiced  the  rite  of  baptism  by  im- 
mersion, and  adhered  with  singular  tenacity  to  the  an- 
cient Jewish  Sabbath  as  the  appointed  day  of  public 
worship.2  He  was  at  all  times  a  careful  observer  of  the 
simple  forms  of  the  church  with  which  he  was  connected, 
and  was  withal  a  truly  devout  and  conscientious  as  well 
as  a  high-minded  and  honorable  man. 

His  patriotism,  which  was  deeply  tinged  with  his  reli- 
gious feelings,  was  of  the  most  constant  and  self-sacrificing 
nature.  To  be  useful  to  the  cause  of  American  liberty, 

1  John  Adams's  Letters  to  his  Wife,  vol.  i.  p.  92. 

2  Among  his  papers  is  a  confession  of  his  faith  in  the  fundamental 
doctrines  of  Christianity,  which  was  submitted  to  the  church  on  his 
admission  as  a  member. 


SAMUEL    WARD.  173 

then  struggling  with  mighty  foes,  to  see  his  country  suc- 
cessful in  the  great  contest  she  had  undertaken,  and  to 
win  for  himself  the  approbation  of  Heaven,  "  as  a  faith- 
ful servant  and  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ,"  —  these,  we  may 
well  judge,  were  the  controlling  aspirations  of  his  mind, 
when  death  summoned  him  to  the  scenes  of  immortality, 
and  to  a  nearer  communion  with  the  spiritual  realities 
which  he  had  so  long  contemplated  from  afar. 

His  death  took  place  on  the  eve  of  great  events,  which 
no  man  had  more  clearly  foreseen,  and  which  few  men 
had  done  more  to  hasten  forward.  His  sun  went  down 
ere  the  star  of  his  country  had  risen,  and  while  gloom 
and  night  yet  hung  round  the  whole  horizon.  Had  his 
life  been  prolonged  but  for  a  little  season,  he  would  have 
beheld  his  native  colony  taking  the  lead  of  all  the  others 
in  asserting  the  doctrines  which  he  cherished,  and  becom- 
ing the  first  to  throw  off  the  allegiance  that  bound  her  to 
the  British  throne.1  He  would  also  have  affixed  his  sig- 
nature to  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence,  and 
thus  linked  with  his  name  an  enduring  title  to  the  grati- 
tude of  posterity,  and  won  perhaps  a  prouder  place  in  the 
annals  of  his  country. 

But  this  high  guaranty  of  fame  he  was  not  permitted 
to  attain  ;  and  we  close  this  narrative  of  his  life  and  ser- 
vices with  the  following  estimate  of  his  character,  from 
the  pen  of  one  who  knew  him  well,  and  who,  while  in 
Congress,  relied  with  unwavering  confidence  on  his  fidel- 
ity, his  wisdom,  and  his  patriotism.  The  late  John 
Adams,  near  the  close  of  his  venerable  old  age,  in  a  let- 
ter dated  January  29,  1821,  and  addressed  to  one  2  of  the 
descendants  of  Governor  Ward,  thus  speaks  of  his  char- 
acter :  — 

1  The  act  of  allegiance  was  repealed  by  the  General  Assembly  in 
May,  1776. 

2  Richard  R.  Ward,  Esq.,  of  New  York. 


174  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

"  He  was  a  gentleman  in  his  manners,  benevolent  and  ami- 
able in  his  disposition,  and  as  decided,  ardent,  and  uniform  in 
his  patriotism  as  any  member  of  that  Congress.  When  he  was 
seized  with  the  smallpox,  he  said  that  if  his  vote  and  voice  were 
necessary  to  support  the  cause  of  his  country,  he  should  live ;  if 
not,  he  should  die.  He  died,  and  the  cause  of  his  country  was 
supported,  but  it  lost  one  of  its  most  sincere  and  punctual  advo- 
cates." 

The  life  of  Governor  Ward  was  abruptly  closed  at  a 
gloomy  period  in  the  history  of  his  country.  But  his 
generous  patriotism  and  his  manly  spirit  did  not  die.  He 
had  instilled  them  with  parental  care  into  the  mind  of  the 
son  who  bore  his  name,  and  to  whose  early  service  in  the 
army  of  the  Revolution  we  have  already  alluded.  The 
father  descended  to  the  tomb  in  the  meridian  of  his  days, 
but  the  leading  features  of  his  character  were  inherited 
by  the  son,  who  in  his  own  career  worthily  exemplified 
the  precepts  and  counsels  which  had  guided  his  youth. 

Samuel  Ward,  Junior,  was  born  at  Westerly,  on  tbe 
17th  of  November,  1756.  He  was  graduated  at  Brown 
University,  with  distinguished  honors,  in  the  class  of  1771. 
At  the  early  age  of  eighteen,  be  received  a  Captain's  com- 
mission from  tbe  government  of  his  native  colony,  and  in 
May,  1775,  marched  with  bis  company  to  join  the  army 
of  observation,  which  Rhode  Island  was  at  that  time  rais- 
ing for  her  own  and  the  common  defense.  In  the  autumn 
of  the  same  year  he  volunteered,  with  a  large  body  of  the 
troops  of  Rhode  Island,  to  accompany  Colonel  Arnold  on 
the  expedition  to  Quebec,  —  an  expedition  attended  witb 
sufferings  and  privations  such  as  were  scarcely  surpassed, 
if  indeed  they  were  equalled,  during  tbe  war.  They  were 
bravely  encountered  and  heroically  endured ;  but  the  ex- 
pedition terminated  in  disaster  and  defeat.  Witb  a  large 
number  of  his  gallant  associates,  Captain  Ward  was  over- 
powered by  superior  force,  taken  prisoner,  and  carried  to 


SAMUEL    WARD.  175 

Quebec,  where  he  was  still  detained  at  the  period  of  his 
father's  death. 

In  the  course  of  the  year  1776,  he  was  exchanged,  and, 
on  his  return  to  Rhode  Island,  married  the  daughter  of 
William  Greene,  of  Warwick,  who  was  afterwards  Gov- 
ernor of  that  State.  Soon  after  his  exchange,  Captain 
Ward  was  commissioned  as  Major  in  the  regiment  of  Colo- 
nel Christopher  Greene,  who  had  been  his  brave  associ- 
ate in  the  toils  and  disasters  of  the  expedition  to  Quebec. 
Under  this  gallant  commander  he  bore  a  distinguished 
part  in  the  celebrated  battle  at  Red  Bank,  in  which  Fort 
Mercer  was  successfully  defended  from  the  assault  of  the 
Hessians  under  Count  Donop.  Of  this  action,  at  the 
order  of  his  Colonel,  he  drew  up  the  official  account,  which 
was  forwarded  to  the  Commander-in-chief,  and  which  is 
now  contained  in  the  published  correspondence  of  Gen- 
eral Washington.1  He  was  also  in  the  camp  of  Wash- 
ington during  the  dreadful  winter  in  which  the  army  was 
quartered  at  Valley  Forge. 

In  1778,  the  regiment  of  Colonel  Greene  was  detached 
for  special  service  in  the  colony  to  which  it  belonged,  and 
was  placed  under  the  command  of  General  Sullivan,  whose 
headquarters  were  then  at  Providence.  The  General  was 
preparing  an  expedition,  which  he  had  been  ordered  to 
undertake  against  the  island  of  Rhode  Island,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  dislodging  the  British  forces,  and  driving  them 
from  the  shores  of  Narragansett  Bay.  In  this  expedition 
Mr.  Ward,  though  holding  only  a  Major's  commission, 
was  intrusted  with  the  command  of  a  regiment.  The  en- 
terprise proved  unsuccessful,  and  the  army  of  General 
Sullivan  was  obliged  to  retreat  from  the  island  ;  but  the 
youthful  officer,  though  charged  with  a  responsibility 
above  his  commission,  behaved  with  prudence  and  gal- 
lantry, and  contributed  his  share  to  the  order  and  success 
1  Sparks's  Washington,  vol.  v.  p.  112. 


176  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

with  which  the  retreat,  so  mortifying  to  the  commander 
and  so  calamitous  to  the  colony,  was  conducted. 

In  April  of  the  following  year,  he  received  the  commis- 
sion of  Lieutenant-Colonel  in  the  first  regiment  of  the 
division  from  Rhode  Island  ;  and  in  this  command  he 
passed  two  years  in  Washington's  army,  while  stationed 
in  New  Jersey  and  upon  the  Hudson  River.  In  many  of 
the  important  operations  of  this  period  he  bore  the  part 
becoming  to  his  rank ;  he  endured  patiently  the  toils  and 
privations  which  the  service  of  his  country  imposed  upon 
the  army,  and  won  for  himself  a  share  of  the  glory  which 
belongs  to  all  those  who,  amidst  disappointment,  disaster, 
and  the  keenest  suffering,  were  still  faithful  to  the  cause 
of  the  Revolution. 

Near  the  close  of  the  war,  Colonel  Ward  retired  from 
the  army,  and  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits  in  the  city 
of  New  York.  While  thus  employed,  he  made  several 
voyages  to  Europe  and  the  East  Indies,  and  was  among 
the  first  to  display  the  flag  of  his  country  in  the  China 
Seas.  He  also  resided  in  Paris  during  some  of  the  early 
stages  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  was  present  at  the 
scene  when  Louis  the  Sixteenth  was  beheaded.  On  his 
return  to  the  United  States,  he  retired  from  the  mercan- 
tile house  with  which  he  had  been  long  connected,  and 
settled  with  his  family  on  an  estate  near  East  Greenwich, 
in  Rhode  Island.  Here,  amid  the  quiet  pursuits  of  agri- 
culture, he  revived  the  studies  of  his  early  years,  and  to 
the  end  of  his  life  maintained  a  scholar's  familiarity  with 
Ca3sar,  Ovid,  and  Horace,  the  classic  writers  who  had 
been  the  favorites  of  his  academic  days.  On  the  death  of 
his  wife,  in  the  year  1817,  he  removed  to  Jamaica,  in  the 
vicinity  of  New  York.  Here  and  in  the  metropolis  itself, 
where  some  of  his  children  were  now  settled  in  business, 
he  lived  for  many  years  in  the  enjoyment  of  congenial 
society,  and  blessed  with  the  filial  love  of  a  numerous 


SAMUEL    WARD.  177 

family,  and  with  the  confidence  and  respect  of  a  wide 
circle  of  friends. 

Colonel  Ward,  though  well  qualified  for  public  life  by 
his  talents  and  education,  as  well  as  by  his  varied  experi- 
ence of  human  affairs  and  his  familiar  acquaintance  with 
most  of  the  leading  men  of  the  country,  yet  was  too 
strongly  attached  to  the  quiet  scenes  of  his  own  home, 
and  was  withal  too  little  ambitious  of  political  distinction, 
ever  to  engage  with  relish  in  the  exciting  labors  of  the 
politician.  He  was  twice,  however,  chosen  to  represent 
his  fellow-citizens  in  what  were  then  deemed  important 
public  bodies.  One  of  them  was  the  Commercial  Conven- 
tion which  assembled  at  Annapolis,  in  1786  ;  the  other 
was  the  Convention  which  met  at  Hartford,  in  1812. 

With  these  solitary  exceptions,  his  days  were  passed  in 
the  humble  occupations  of  a  private  gentleman.  Yet  he 
was  not  indifferent  to  the  fortunes  of  his  country.  He 
had  been  taught  to  love  her  from  his  infancy,  and  had 
spent  the  first  years  of  his  early  manhood  in  the  achieve- 
ment of  her  independence.  But  now  that  this  had  been 
secured,  he  yielded  to  the  love  of  quiet  inherent  in  his 
nature,  and  felt  at  liberty  to  keep  himself  aloof  from  her 
public  concerns.  He  died  at  New  York,  in  1832,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-five  years. 

The  recollection  of  the  person  and  the  character  of 
Colonel  Ward  is  still  vivid  in  the  minds  of  many  who 
knew  him  as  he  appeared  in  society  in  the  later  years  of 
his  life.  One  of  these,  who  can  well  judge  of  the  qualities 
he  specifies,  has  pronounced  him  to  have  been  "a  ripe 
classical  scholar,  a  gentleman  of  most  winning  urbanity 
of  manners,  and  a  man  of  sterling  intellect  and  unblem- 
ished honor."  1 

1  Notices  of  the  early  graduates  of  Brown  University  by  William 
G.  Goddard. 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.1 

IN  the  year  1823,  James  Monroe  was  in  the  third  year 
of  his  second  presidency  of  the  United  States;  John 
Quincy  Adams  was  Secretary  of  State ;  Richard  Rush 
was  Minister  of  the  United  States  at  the  Court  of  St. 
James,  where  George  Canning  was  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  virtual  head  of  the  English  cabinet.  The  presi- 
dency of  Mr.  Monroe,  from  the  beginning,  had  been  sin- 
gularly free  from  partisan  bitterness  and  political  agita- 
tions of  every  kind.  The  old  Federal  party  had  gone  to 
its  final  rest.  The  passions  engendered  during  the  War 
of  1812  had  become  extinct,  and  his  second  election  had 
been  well-nigh  unanimous.  The  acquisition  of  Florida 
had  gratified  the  national  appetite  for  territory,  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  had  for  the  time  pacified  the  section- 
alism of  the  South,  and  the  rapid  extension  of  settlements 
beyond  the  Mississippi  proclaimed  the  beneficence  of  the 
government  and  the  prosperity  of  the  people. 

In  Europe,  however,  a  very  different  spectacle  was  pre- 
sented. The  wars  of  the  French  Revolution  had  come  to 
an  end,  but  their  end  had  brought  neither  public  peace 
nor  private  contentment.  The  armies  of  allied  Europe, 
which  had  been  engaged  in  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon, 
were  still  kept  on  foot,  and  were  now  employed  in  the 
reconstruction  of  the  continent  on  the  principles  of  legit- 
imacy, and  in  destroying  every  vestige  of  the  freedom 
which  revolution  had  anywhere  secured.  The  Great 

1  Read  before  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  February  8, 
1881. 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  179 

Powers  were  resolved  not  to  abandon  their  efforts  at  sub- 
jugation till  absolute  monarchy  should  be  again  estab- 
lished in  every  country  in  which  free  institutions  had 
gained  any  foothold.  To  Austria  had  been  assigned  the 
work  of  popular  subjugation  in  Italy  and  Switzerland  ; 
and  the  restored  monarchy  of  France,  with  the  support 
of  Russia  and  Prussia,  had  sent  an  army  into  Spain  to 
destroy  the  liberal  constitution  which  the  Cortes  had 
forced  upon  their  faithless  Bourbon  king,  Ferdinand  VII. 
England  had  been  associated  with  these  powers  in  the 
wars  against  Napoleon,  and  had  for  a  time  continued  in 
their  bad  company.  When  Mr.  Burke,  thirty  years  be- 
fore, wrote  his  "  Reflections  on  the  French  Revolution," 
'  he  penned  a  passage  of  brilliant  apology  for  the  repres- 
sive measures  which  the  madness  of  the  Revolution  then 
seemed  to  require,  closing  it  with  the  sententious  apho- 
rism, "  Kings  will  be  tyrants  from  policy  when  subjects 
are  rebels  from  principle."  But  the  time  for  such  apology 
or  for  any  apology  had  long  passed  in  England.  She 
looked  with  alarm  and  disgust  upon  the  reactionary  move- 
ments in  which  the  allies  were  engaged,  and  found  herself 
compelled  by  every  requirement  of  her  free  constitution, 
as  well  as  by  all  the  best  impulses  of  her  Saxon  blood, 
to  declare  against  them. 

It  was  in  these  circumstances  that  in  August,  1823, 
Mr.  Canning  took  occasion  to  confer  with  the  American 
Minister,  Mr.  Rush,  as  to  the  alarming  designs  of  the 
allies,  and  also  to  make  known  to  him  the  fact,  which  had 
come  privately  to  his  knowledge,  that  these  designs  now 
distinctly  embraced  the  restoration  to  the  Spanish  crown 
of  the  American  colonies  which  had  been  wrested  from 
it  by  revolution.  Mr.  Canning's  design  was  to  unite 
this  country  with  Great  Britain  in  a  determined  protest 
against  any  forcible  interference  with  the  Spanish-Ameri- 
can colonies,  then  struggling  for  their  independence,  and 


180  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

he  concentrated  his  views  in  the  highly  suggestive,  per- 
haps artful  question,  "  Are  the  great  political  and  com- 
mercial interests  which  hang  upon  the  destinies  of  the 
New  World  to  be  canvassed  and  adjusted  in  Europe  with- 
out the  cooperation  or  even  the  knowledge  of  the  United 
States?" 

The  conversation,  or  conversations,  for  there  were  sev- 
eral, which  were  entirely  confidential,  were  carefully  re- 
ported to  the  State  Department.  Mr.  Adams,  the  astute 
and  practiced  secretary,  immediately  comprehended  the 
situation,  and  lost  no  time  in  deciding  as  to  what  he 
should  advise  the  President  to  do.  The  United  States 
had  already  acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  Span- 
ish-American republics,  and  had  formally  urged  Great" 
Britain  to  do  the  same.  But  she  had  delayed,  and  now, 
instead  of  acknowledging  them  herself,  Mr.  Canning  had 
proposed  that  the  two  governments  should  join  in  a  sol- 
emn protest  against  the  contemplated  proceeding  of  the 
Holy  Alliance.  With  this  proposal  Mr.  Adams  had  no 
thought  of  complying.  He  saw  at  a  glance  that,  by  join- 
ing with  England,  this  country  would  perform  but  a  sec- 
ondary part  in  a  matter  of  transcendent  importance  to 
her  interests  and  even  to  her  destiny.  Accordingly,  in  lay- 
ing the  whole  matter  before  the  President,  he  urged  upon 
his  attention  the  fact  that  here  was  a  great  opportunity 
to  define  and  declare  the  position  of  the  United  States  as 
to  the  movements  in  question,  and  at  the  same  time  to  af- 
ford special  encouragement  to  the  new  republics  whose 
independence  we  had  very  recently  acknowledged.  This, 
Mr.  Adams  suggested,  could  most  properly  be  done  in 
the  annual  message  to  Congress. 

Mr.  Monroe,  it  is  understood,  did  not  readily  adopt  the 
views  of  his  secretary.  He  had  intended  to  advert  in  his 
message  to  the  dangerous  proceedings  and  more  danger- 
ous doctrines  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  but  he  shrank  from 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  181 

adopting  the  bold  declarations  of  Mr.  Adams.  He  ap- 
prehended that  their  utterance  might  bring  embarrass- 
ment to  his  administration,  iu  whose  quiet,  easy-going 
character  he  greatly  delighted.  He  at  length,  however, 
waived  his  objections,  and  wrought  the  sentiments  with 
which  Mr.  Adams  had  inspired  him  into  the  message 
which  he  sent  to  Congress  at  its  assembling  on  December 
3,  1823.  These  sentiments  are  embodied  in  separate 
paragraphs  in  different  parts  of  the  message.  It  should 
also  here  be  mentioned  that  a  dispute  was  then  in  pro- 
gress between  the  United  States  and  Russia  respecting 
the  claims  of  the  latter  to  what  was  at  that  time  vaguely 
known  as  the  Oregon  Territory,  and  that  in  this  dispute 
Great  Britain  was  incidentally  involved  on  account  of  the 
still  unsettled  boundary  between  her  possessions  and  those 
of  the  United  States  in  the  same  Territory.  After  giv- 
ing an  account  of  the  question  then  at  issue  between  us 
and  Russia,  the  message  contains  the  following  sentence, 
which,  though  without  any  bearing  on  the  Holy  Alli- 
ance or  the  Spanish- American  republics,  has  always  been 
considered  a  part  of  the  so-called  "  Monroe  Doctrine : " 
"The  occasion  has  been  judged  proper  for  asserting,  as 
a  principle  in  which  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  United 
States  are  involved,  that  the  American  continents,  by  the 
free  and  independent  condition  which  they  have  assumed 
and  maintain,  are  henceforth  not  to  be  considered  as  sub- 
jects for  future  colonization  by  any  European  power." 

It  was,  however,  in  a  subsequent  part  of  the  message 
that  he  set  forth,  in  several  paragraphs,  the  views  which 
he  had  been  persuaded  to  present  concerning  the  threat- 
ened interference  of  the  allied  powers  of  Europe  in  the 
political  affairs  of  the  western  continent.  The  paragraphs 
are  too  long  to  be  recited  in  full ;  they  are  indeed  only 
repeated  expressions  of  one  and  the  same  general  idea, 
and  of  this  idea  the  essential  declarations  are  as  follows : 


182  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

"  The  political  system  of  the  allied  powers  is  essentially  dif- 
ferent [in  this  respect]  from  that  of  America.  This  difference 
proceeds  from  that  which  exists  in  their  respective  govern- 
ments. .  .  .  We  owe  it,  therefore,  to  candor  and  to  the  amicable 
relations  existing  between  the  United  States  and  those  powers 
to  declare  that  we  should  consider  any  attempt  on  their  part  to 
extend  their  system  to  any  portion  of  this  hemisphere  as  dan- 
gerous to  our  peace  and  safety.  With  the  existing  colonies  or  de- 
pendencies of  any  European  power  we  have  not  interfered,  and 
shall  not  interfere  ;  but  with  the  governments  who  have  declared 
their  independence  and  maintained  it,  and  whose  independence 
we  have,  on  great  consideration  and  on  just  principles,  acknow- 
ledged, we  could  not  view  any  interposition  for  the  purpose  of 
oppressing  them,  or  controlling,  in  any  other  manner,  their  destiny, 
by  any  European  power,  in  any  other  light  than  as  the  manifes- 
tation of  an  unfriendly  disposition  towards  the  United  States." 

"  In  the  war  between  those  new  governments  and  Spain,  we 
declared  our  neutrality  at  the  time  of  their  recognition  ;  and  to 
this  we  have  adhered  and  shall  continue  to  adhere,  provided  no 
change  shall  occur  which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  competent  au- 
thorities of  this  government,  shall  make  a  corresponding  change 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States  indispensable  to  their  security." 

In  a  subsequent  paragraph  the  message  sets  forth  the 
marked  difference  between  the  policy  prevailing  among 
the  powers  of  Europe  as  to  interfering  in  the  political  af- 
fairs of  foreign  States  and  the  policy  early  adopted  by 
the  United  States  in  regard  to  all  those  powers.  It  then 
points  out  that  in  regard  to  these  American  continents 
"  circumstances  are  eminently  and  conspicuously  differ- 
ent." It  goes  on  to  declare  again  that  "  it  is  impossible 
that  the  allied  powers  should  extend  their  political  sys- 
tem to  any  portion  of  either  continent  without  endanger- 
ing our  peace  and  happiness." 

These  are  the  several  declarations  which  together  con- 
stitute what  has  received  the  name  of  the  "  Monroe  Doc- 
trine." The  significance  of  the  doctrine,  as  intended  by 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  183 

President  Monroe,  is  to  be  determined  by  reference  to 
the  circumstances  in  which  it  had  its  origin  and  the  avowed 
objects  which  it  was  designed  to  accomplish.  These  fully 
show :  1.  That  this  second  part  of  it  was  prompted  solely 
by  the  threatened  interference  of  the  powers  of  Europe 
in  the  political  affairs  of  the  American  States,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  controlling  their  destiny.  2.  That  its  single  design 
was  to  prevent  this  and  all  similar  interference.  3.  That 
the  doctrine,  as  put  forth  by  Mr.  Monroe,  was  declared 
and  promulgated  solely  in  the  interest  of  the  United 
States,  and  because  the  interposition  in  question  would 
inflict  injury  upon  this  country.  4.  It  did  not  promise 
or  imply  military  aid  to  the  Spanish- American  States  in 
their  existing  struggle  with  Spain.  On  the  contrary,  it 
expressly  declared  that  neutrality  would  be  strictly  main- 
tained between  the  belligerents,  unless  there  should  arise 
a  necessity  for  departing  from  it.  5.  Nor  was  it  a 
declaration  against  the  existence  of  monarchical  institu- 
tions in  the  western  hemisphere ;  for  such  institutions 
were  already  existing  in  Brazil,  in  Cuba,  in  Canada,  and 
they  had  scarcely  ceased  to  exist  in  Mexico,  whose  first 
independent  government  was  an  empire.  It  had  to  do, 
not  with  existing  governments  or  colonies  already  here, 
but  solely  with  European  interposition  for  the  purpose  of 
oppressing  them  or  in  any  way  controlling  their  destiny. 

The  other,  or  first-mentioned,  part  of  the  doctrine  — 
that  which  relates  to  colonization  by  any  European  power 
—  had  a  different  origin,  and  it  would  probably  have  had 
a  place  in  Mr.  Monroe's  message,  even  if  the  allied 
powers  had  never  thought  of  intervention  in  America.  It 
had  been  repeatedly  asserted  before  in  the  diplomatic 
correspondence  of  the  government.  But  it  is  manifestly 
only  another  declaration  of  the  same  underlying  fact,  and 
this  fact  is  that  every  part  of  America  —  both  North  and 
South  —  had  now  become  the  property  of  some  established 


184  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

government,  and  that,  consequently,  no  portion  of  it  could 
now  be  claimed  or  colonized  by  any  country  of  Europe  in 
virtue  of  any  right  of  discovery  or  of  bargain  with  its 
aboriginal  proprietors.  The  two  declarations  go  naturally 
together.  They  unite  to  form  one  doctrine  of  public 
law,  because  they  are  both  parts  of  one  and  the  same 
political  idea,  viz.,  the  recognized  jurisdiction  of  some 
established  government  over  every  part  of  the  two  conti- 
nents of  America.  These  continents,  therefore,  are  hence- 
forth no  more  open  to  European  colonization  than  is  the 
continent  of  Europe  open  to  American  colonization. 

It  should  here  be  especially  observed  that  this  doctrine 
was  at  the  outset,  and  still  remains,  simply  a  passage  in 
an  annual  message  of  President  Monroe.  It  declared  that 
European  intervention  in  the  political  affairs  of  North  or 
South  America,  or  the  colonization  of  any  part  of  its 
territory  by  any  European  power,  would  be  regarded  "  as 
the  manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  disposition  towards  the 
United  States."  It  did  not,  however,  declare  what  the 
United  States  would  do  in  case  of  such  intervention  or 
colonization  by  the  allied  powers ;  still  less  did  it  promise 
to  the  other  American  States  any  protection  or  military 
assistance  of  any  kind.  What  would  be  the  consequence 
was  left  for  them  to  imagine,  and  this  was  to  give  it  the 
greatest  possible  effect.  It  was  to  the  former  a  matter  of 
indefinite  apprehensions,  while  to  the  latter  it  was  an 
occasion  of  indefinite  expectations.  It  was  designed  solely 
for  moral  effect,  to  deter  the  great  powers  of  Europe  from 
their  contemplated  interference  by  assuring  them  that  we 
should  regard  it  as  "  endangering  our  peace  and  happi- 
ness." It  is  also  to  be  said  that  this  doctrine  lias  never 
been  sanctioned  by  any  enactment  of  Congress,  nor  has  it, 
in  any  other  way,  been  established  as  a  uniform  principle 
of  public  policy  for  the  United  States.  President  Mon- 
roe reaffirmed  it  in  his  annual  message  of  December, 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  185 

1824;  Mr.  Adams,  his  successor,  reiterated  it  in  1825;  and 
it  has  since  been  repeated  again  and  again  by  other  Presi- 
dents. The  first  attempt  to  secure  for  it  the  sanction  of 
Congress  was  made  in  1824,  by  Mr.  Clay,  at  that  time 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  introduced 
in  the  House  a  resolution  for  that  purpose,  and  advocated 
it  with  all  his  brilliant  oratory,  but  the  effort  was  without 
success.  On  several  subsequent  occasions,  similar  at- 
tempts have  been  made,  but  they  have  uniformly  resulted 
in  failure.  It  has,  however,  always  been  a  power  in 
American  diplomacy. 

But  notwithstanding  these  limitations  and  drawbacks 
which  may  be  connected  with  it,  this  declaration  of  Presi- 
dent Monroe,  it  must  still  be  said,  produced  a  profound 
impression  on  the  public  mind  of  this  country,  and  a 
scarcely  less  profound  impression  on  the  public  mind  of 
the  leading  nations  of  Europe.  It  was  one  of  those 
fortunate  and  significant  utterances  which  mean  more 
than  they  at  first  seem  to  mean.  It  expressed  a  national 
sentiment  just  at  the  moment  when  it  was  forming  in  the 
minds  of  the  people.  It  published  to  the  world  what  was 
in  the  national  heart,  though  no  one  had  ever  uttered  it 
before.  It  embodied  at  once  our  American  sympathy 
with  popular  freedom,  our  hatred  of  absolute  govern- 
ments, the  dictates  of  our  national  pride,  and  the  aspira- 
tions of  our  national  ambition.  In  this  country  it  was 
hailed  as  a  sort  of  Declaration  of  Independence  for  the 
whole  western  hemisphere.  Nor  was  this  popular  appre- 
ciation of  it  essentially  different  from  that  which  was 
entertained  even  in  advance  by  Mr.  Jefferson.  Weeks 
before  the  message  was  prepared,  Mr.  Monroe,  while  con- 
sidering the  proposal  of  Mr.  Canning,  that  the  two  gov- 
ernments should  unite  in  a  solemn  protest  to  the  allied 
powers  against  their  intervention  in  Spanish  America, 
had  asked  the  advice  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  answered  in 
these  earnest  words  :  — 


186  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

"  The  question  is  the  most  momentous  which  has  ever  been 
offered  to  my  contemplation  since  that  of  independence.  That 
made  us  a  nation  ;  this  sets  our  compass,  and  points  the  course 
which  we  are  to  steer  through  the  ocean  of  time  opening  on  us ; 
and  never  could  we  embark  on  it  under  circumstances  more 
auspicious.  Our  first  and  fundamental  maxim  should  be,  never 
to  entangle  ourselves  in  the  broils  of  Europe.  Our  second,  never 
to  suffer  Europe  to  meddle  with  cisatlantic  affairs.  America, 
North  and  South,  has  a  set  of  interests  distinct  from  those  of 
Europe,  and  peculiarly  her  own.  She  should,  therefore,  have  a 
system  of  her  own,  separate  and  apart  from  that  of  Europe. 
While  the  last  is  laboring  to  become  the  domicile  of  despotism, 
our  endeavor  should  surely  be  to  make  our  hemisphere  that  of 
freedom." 

Nor  was  the  effect  of  this  declaration  abroad  less 
marked  than  at  home.  Mr.  Rush  records  that  "  it  was  upon 
all  tongues;  the  press  was  full  of  it;  the  Spanish- American 
deputies  were  overjoyed.  Spanish  -  American  securities 
rose  in  the  stock  market,  and  the  safety  of  the  new  States 
from  all  European  coercion  was  considered  as  no  longer 
doubtful."  It  was  hailed  with  the  utmost  satisfaction 
by  the  liberal  statesmen  of  England.  Lord  Brougham, 
Sir  James  Macintosh,  and  Lord  John  Russell  expressed 
their  gratification  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Nor  did 
Mr.  Canning,  though  a  Tory,  withhold  his  full  approval 
of  the  declaration  against  interference,  though  it  was  not 
precisely  what  he  desired,  while  the  declaration  against 
colonization  was  very  different  from  what  he  desired.  It 
was  everywhere  regarded  as  a  bold  assertion  of  American 
spirit  and  character,  and  the  United  States  and  the  Amer- 
ican continent  all  at  once  assumed  a  conspicuous  posi- 
tion in  the  thoughts  and  interests  of  Europe.  The  allied 
powers  still  offered  their  assistance  to  Spain  in  the  war 
with  her  rebel  colonies,  but  England  immediately  de- 
clared that  the  first  act  of  intervention  would  be  a  suffi- 
cient ground  for  recognizing  their  independence. 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  187 

Such  was  the  origin  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  such 
the  interest  with  which  its  first  promulgation  in  1823-24 
was  received  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic.  So  far  as  the 
intention  and  design  of  its  author  were  concerned,  it  had 
to  do  only  with  the  conjunction  of  events  which  called  it 
forth.  It  has,  however,  long  survived  these  events,  and 
has  been  connected  with  several  interesting  public  ques- 
tions of  our  national  history. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  question  of  the  Panama  Con- 
gress. Early  in  the  administration  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  Colombia  invited 
this  government  to  send  envoys  to  a  Congress  of  American 
States,  which  was  to  meet  in  the  following  spring  at  the 
city  of  Panama.  The  general  object  of  the  meeting  was 
to  consider  what  means  should  be  employed  by  the  several 
States  to  defend  themselves  against  the  attempts  of  any 
European  power  either  to  interfere  in  their  civil  affairs  or 
to  colonize  their  territory.  These  States  sought  to  con- 
sult as  to  their  common  interests,  and  their  motive  in  invit- 
ing our  government  to  meet  with  them  undoubtedly  was, 
that  they  might  thus  have  the  benefit  of  our  longer  expe- 
rience and  superior  wisdom  as  a  nation.  The  idea  of  the 
Congress  was  a  natural  result  of  the  declaration  of  Mr. 
Monroe,  and  some  such  conference  seemed  to  be  required 
in  order  to  give  that  declaration  practical  effect.  The 
President  immediately  accepted  the  invitation,  and  in  his 
first  message  in  December,  1825,  he  communicated  the 
fact  to  Congress,  and  soon  afterwards  sent  to  the  Senate 
the  names  of  John  Serjeant  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Rich- 
ard C.  Anderson,  of  Kentucky,  to  be  confirmed  as  envoys. 
The  question  also  came  up  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives as  to  the  appropriation  that  would  be  required.  It 
was  thus,  in  one  form  or  the  other,  before  both  houses  at 
the  same  time,  and  no  question  of  the  day  gave  rise  to 
so  protracted  debate  or  excited  so  widespread  public  in- 
terest. 


188  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

The  President  and  his  advisers  attached  extraordinary 
importance  to  the  proposed  Congress.  They  saw  in  it 
an  unprecedented  opportunity,  and  they  expected  from  it 
great  results,  that  would  contribute  to  the  advancement 
of  the  South  American  States  in  civil  and  religious  free- 
dom, in  good  government,  and  in  all  commercial  and  social 
development.  Mr.  Gallatin  was  at  the  outset  invited  to 
be  one  of  the  envoys,  and,  in  urging  his  acceptance  of 
the  invitation,  Mr.  Clay,  the  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  to 
him  as  follows  :  "  I  think  the  mission  the  most  important 
ever  sent  from  this  country,  those  only  excepted  which 
related  to  its  independence  and  to  the  termination  of  the 
late  war."  The  instructions,  also,  which  were  prepared 
for  our  envoys  were  liberal  and  comprehensive  as  well  as 
careful  and  well  guarded.  They  were  designed  to  afford 
the  utmost  encouragement  to  the  new  States  which  it  was 
in  our  power  to  give.  The  measure  could  have  done  no 
harm ;  it  promised  to  do  great  good.  The  two  houses  of 
Congress,  however,  were  at  this  time  largely  composed  of 
the  factions  which  had  just  been  defeated  by  the  election 
of  Mr.  Adams  to  the  presidency,  and  they,  with  one  ac- 
cord, seized  upon  this  novel  recommendation  as  an  oppor- 
tunity for  bringing  annoyance  and  odium  to  the  adminis- 
tration. It  immediately  became  the  object  of  bitter  and 
virulent  attack.  The  proposed  Congress  was  denounced 
as  a  "  Council  of  Amphictyons,"  —  as  likely  to  form  a  sort 
of  Holy  Alliance  in  America  in  feeble  imitation  of  that 
in  Europe.  It  would  entangle  us  in  the  dubious  fortunes 
of  the  South  American  republics  and  compel  us  to  become 
their  protector.  It  would  involve  us  in  war  with  Spain, 
and  perhaps  with  all  Europe.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  it- 
self was  condemned  as  unsound  and  dangerous ;  and  the 
House  of  Representatives  went  so  far  as  to  adopt  a  reso- 
lution declaring  that  the  United  States  ought  not  to  be- 
come a  party  with  the  South  American  States  or  any  one 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  189 

of  them  to  any  joint  declaration  even  for  preventing  Euro- 
pean interference  or  colonization  in  the  continent  of  Amer- 
ica. This  resolution  was,  of  course,  the  same  thing  as  to 
annul,  so  far  as  the  House  of  Representatives  was  con- 
cerned, the  whole  practical  import  of  the  doctrine,  and 
render  it  utterly  nugatory. 

Mr.  Adams  sent  repeated  messages  to  Congress  in  order 
to  remove  these  erroneous  impressions.  He  declared  that 
there  was  no  intention  of  binding  the  United  States  to 
any  compact ;  that  the  Monroe  Doctrine  never  contem- 
plated any  guarantee  for  the  South  American  republics  or 
any  concerted  action  with  them,  save  that  each  State,  in 
its  own  way  and  by  its  own  means,  should  resist  the  at- 
tempt of  any  European  power  to  interfere  with  its  inde- 
pendence or  to  colonize  its  territory.  It  was  all  in  vain. 
The  opposition  cared  only  to  annoy  and  embarrass  the 
administration.  But  what,  in  those  days  of  Southern 
domination  in  this  country,  did  most  to  concentrate  hos- 
tility against  the  project  was  the  demand  of  John  Ran- 
dolph in  the  Senate  to  be  informed  whether  the  Congress 
would  not  recognize  the  Black  Republic  of  Hayti,  or  rev- 
olutionize Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  and  free  their  slaves ! 
After  this,  the  measure  could  not  pass  save  with  restric- 
tions and  conditions  that  would  strip  the  envoys  of  the 
United  States  of  everything  like  prestige  or  authority, 
and  make  them  merely  silent  and  useless  spectators  of 
what  the  others  might  do.  The  nominations,  however, 
were  at  length  reluctantly  confirmed,  and  the  appropria- 
tions were  voted,  but  not  till  the  season  had  become  so 
late  that  Mr.  Serjeant  refused  to  encounter  the  unhealthy 
climate,  and  Mr.  Anderson,  the  other  envoy,  was  Minister 
of  the  United  States  in  Colombia.  The  latter  commenced 
the  journey  from  Bogota,  but  died  on  the  way  to  Panama, 
from  the  fever  of  the  country.  Others  of  the  envoys 
and  their  secretaries  narrowly  escaped  a  similar  fate. 


190  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

The  Congress  met  only  to  adjourn  till  autumn  to  a  place 
in  Mexico ;  but  by  that  time  the  President,  or  Dictator,  of 
that  republic  had  become  hostile  to  it,  and  it  did  not  as- 
semble again.  Its  total  failure  was  undoubtedly  owing  to 
the  want  of  interest  in  its  objects  manifested  by  the  United 
States,  and  the  only  importance  which  now  belongs  to  it 
in  American  history  arises  from  its  connection  with  the 
positive  refusal  of  one  house  of  Congress  and  the  manifest 
unwillingness  of  the  other  to  give  anything  like  practical 
effect  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine ;  and  that,  too,  within  less 
than  three  years  after  its  first  promulgation. 

The  next  conspicuous  assertion  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
was  made  by  President  Polk,  whose  administration  began 
in  1845,  while  the  Oregon  question  with  Great  Britain 
was  still  pending.  The  rallying  cry  of  the  party  which 
elected  him  had  been  "  54°  40'  or  fight,"  and  in  his  first 
message  to  Congress  he  recurred  in  vigorous  words  to  the 
declarations  of  his  predecessor  of  twenty  years  before, 
and  asserted  that  these  declarations  would  be  maintained, 
and  that  "  no  future  European  colony  or  dominion  shall, 
with  our  consent,  be  planted  or  established  on  any  part  of 
the  North  American  continent."  When,  however,  the 
negotiations  were  begun,  it  was  seen  that  the  parallel  of 
54°  40'  could  not  be  maintained,  and  the  government  was 
obliged  to  accept  that  of  49°  for  the  boundary.  Mr.  Polk, 
in  spite  of  his  brave  words,  did  thus  consent  to  the  open- 
ing of  a  territory  of  more  than  five  degrees  of  latitude, 
with  a  longitude  extending  across  nearly  half  the  conti- 
nent, to  both  "  colonies  and  dominion  "  from  Europe. 

Three  years  later  (in  1848),  during  the  Mexican  War, 
he  sent  to  Congress  a  message  stating  that  Yucatan,  nom- 
inally one  of  the  States  of  Mexico,  had  appealed  to  the 
United  States  for  protection  against  the  violence  of  its 
own  Indian  population.  A  similar  appeal  was,  at  the 
same  time,  made  to  Spain  and  to  England.  The  Presi- 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  191 

dent  took  the  ground  that  the  appeal  should  be  regarded 
by  our  government,  because  either  England  or  Spain 
would  otherwise  interfere,  and  this  would  be  in  disregard 
of  our  traditional  policy,  as  declared  in  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine. The  suggestion  was  bitterly  assailed  in  the  Senate 
by  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Monroe 
cabinet.  He  denied  that  the  doctrine  was  capable  of  any 
such  application,  and  it  again  failed  to  receive  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  legislature,  and  was  also  abandoned  by  the 
Executive,  —  and  that  even  when  urged  by  considerations 
of  humanity. 

In  1850  was  concluded  the  convention  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  which  bears  the  name  of 
the  "  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty."  The  special  object  of  this 
treaty  was  to  fix  the  relations  of  those  two  powers  to  the 
republics  of  Central  America,  and  its  stipulations  very 
largely  involve  the  considerations  which  are  embodied  in 
the  declarations  of  President  Monroe.  But  they  expressly 
disclaim,  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  any  interest, 
rights,  or  advantages  in  connection  with  those  Central- 
American  States  other  than  such  as  may  pertain  to  Great 
Britain  or  any  other  European  nation.  The  executive 
branch  of  the  government  here  took  the  lead  in  abandon- 
ing the  ground  which  before  it  had  so  constantly  assumed 
and  so  generally  maintained.  The  treaty,  however,  has 
never  been  acceptable  to  the  country,  nor  has  it  been  much 
regarded  on  either  side.  So  early  as  1852,  it  was  wantonly 
violated  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  by  her  claim  of  a 
protectorate  over  "  the  kingdom  "  of  the  Mosquito  Indians 
in  Nicaragua,  and  her  subsequent  occupation  of  the  "  Bay 
Islands  "  on  the  coast  of  Honduras.  These  proceedings 
led  to  the  introduction  in  the  Senate,  by  Mr.  Cass,  of  a 
series  of  joint  resolutions,  which  were  designed  to  enact  as 
a  law  of  Congress  the  declarations  of  Mr.  Monroe.  The 
resolutions  were  debated  through  several  weeks  by  most 


192  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

of  the  leading  statesmen  then  in  the  Senate ;  but  they 
again  failed  of  adoption.  The  Monroe  Doctrine,  however, 
still  continued  to  be  urged  by  the  Executive  in  the  diplo- 
macy of  the  government ;  and  England,  at  the  demand 
of  Nicaragua  and  Honduras,  in  1860,  abandoned  her 
claims  both  to  the  protectorate  and  the  islands.  By  this 
proceeding,  the  last  remaining  trace  of  European  inter- 
vention in  the  affairs  of  this  continent  was  brought  to  an 
end. 

But  this  exemption  was  not  to  continue  long.  Four 
years  had  scarcely  elapsed  when  an  enterprise,  by  far  the 
most  daring  and  dangerous  which  had  ever  been  under- 
taken against  the  independence  of  American  States,  was 
carried  into  full  execution  in  Mexico  by  the  Emperor  of 
the  French.  It  was  the  gloomiest  moment  in  the  war  of 
secession,  when  the  French  expedition,  with  Maximilian 
at  its  head,  landed  at  Vera  Cruz,  and  with  slight  opposi- 
tion made  its  way  to  the  capital,  where  the  destined  Em- 
peror was  proclaimed,  with  the  seeming  approval  of  the 
clergy,  the  notables,  and  the  most  respectable  of  the  pop- 
ulation. It  was  the  most  brilliant  pronunciamento  that 
Mexico  had  ever  witnessed.  The  republic  shrank  to  a 
single  province  or  two,  where  it  continued  to  maintain  a 
precarious  authority  and  to  carry  on  a  guerrilla  war  in  its 
own  defense.  The  government  of  the  United  States  had 
sent  its  reiterated  and  earnest  protests  to  the  Emperor 
of  France  against  this  reckless  menace  to  all  American 
States,  but  he  had  treated  them  with  undisguised  con- 
tempt, for  he  was  persuaded  that  the  Union  was  hope- 
lessly destroyed,  and  that  the  Southern  Confederacy  would 
soon  be  his  ally.  Meanwhile,  the  American  Minister  in 
Mexico  had  remained  with  Juarez,  the  President  of  the 
republic,  and  had  given  to  him  the  entire  moral  support 
of  our  government.  No  notice  whatever  was  taken  of 
Maximilian  or  his  empire,  which  had  come  from  Europe. 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  193 

The  enterprise  thus  went  on  for  more  than  a  year,  and 
seemed  to  be  a  complete  success.  Louis  Napoleon  boasted 
of  it  as  the  greatest  achievement  of  his  reign,  and  was 
already  dreaming  of  a  still  more  comprehensive  union  of 
what  he  called  the  Latin  races  in  America,  under  the 
protection  of  France.  But  the  new  empire  was  already 
on  the  verge  of  annihilation.  In  the  summer  of  1865  the 
Union  had  subjugated  secession  and  suppressed  rebellion. 
The  Monroe  Doctrine,  as  again  uttered  by  Mr.  Secretary 
Seward,  now  sounded  in  the  ears  of  Louis  Napoleon  like 
the  voice  of  a  triumphant  and  united  nation,  with  a  vic- 
torious army  of  a  million  of  men  fresh  from  the  battle- 
fields of  the  war.  He  immediately  heeded  its  demands, 
which  were  that  his  troops  should  be  withdrawn  from 
Mexico,  and  that  the  question  between  the  empire  and  the 
republic  should  be  left  for  the  people  themselves  to  decide, 
without  foreign  coercion  or  dictation.  Never  did  Ameri- 
can diplomacy  win  a  nobler  or  more  righteous  triumph. 
Never  did  the  peaceful  pressure  of  a  great  national  idea 
secure  a  more  momentous  result.  We  may  indeed  pity 
the  tragic  fate  of  Maximilian  and  Carlotta,  the  innocent 
dupes  of  Napoleonic  ambition,  but  we  must  still  rejoice 
in  the  complete  vindication  of  a  great  idea,  which  is  es- 
sential to  the  political  independence  of  every  nation  on 
the  continent  of  America. 

And  now  has  arisen  the  question  of  the  Isthmian  Canal, 
to  which  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is  again  sought  to  be  ap- 
plied. The  limits  of  this  doctrine,  it  is  true,  have  never 
been  very  carefully  fixed,  but  until  now  they  have  not 
been  imagined  to  be  broad  enough  to  embrace  a  question 
so  remote  as  this.  President  Monroe  announced  that  no 
part  of  the  American  continent  was  any  longer  open  to 
colonization,  or  to  any  kind  of  political  intervention  by  a 
European  power,  and  that  any  such  intervention  would 
be  regarded  as  "  the  manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  dis- 


194  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

position  towards  the  United  States."  This  declaration, 
put  forth  fifty-seven  years  ago,  is  now  made  to  include 
the  construction  of  a  canal,  designed  to  be,  like  the  ocean 
itself,  a  grand  highway  for  the  commerce  of  all  the  world. 
This  is  certainly  neither  colonization  nor  intervention,  but 
it  has  been  assailed  with  as  much  hostility  as  if  it  com- 
bined all  the  evils  and  dangers  of  both.  Our  government 
is  urged  to  declare  and  to  maintain  not  only  that  no  canal 
across  the  isthmus  shall  be  constructed  by  any  European 
government,  but  also  that  none  shall  be  constructed  by 
any  corporation  chartered  by  a  European  government ; 
in  a  word,  that  it  must  be  built,  if  built  at  all,  only  by  a 
corporation  chartered  in  the  United  States,  and  that,  when 
built,  the  canal  must  be  under  the  single  guarantee  and 
control  of  the  government  of  the  United  States.  All  this, 
it  is  claimed,  is  a  part  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine ;  and  the 
reason  given  is  that  the  construction  of  this  great  work 
by  an  European  corporation  will  involve  the  planting 
of  settlements  whose  inhabitants  will  be  subjects  of  an 
European  government,  and  that  thus  a  colony  will  be 
established  at  our  very  doors.  This,  it  is  said,  is  only 
another  mode  of  bringing  about  the  very  result  which 
Mr.  Monroe  designed  to  prevent. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  are  grave  questions  con- 
nected with  this  Isthmian  Canal  which  have  a  very  im- 
portant bearing  on  American  interests,  and  demand  the 
most  careful  consideration  of  our  government.  But  among 
these  questions  there  can  hardly  be  one  of  smaller  conse- 
quence than  whether  it  is  or  is  not  at  variance  with  the 
Monroe  Doctrine.  This  doctrine  has,  no  doubt,  done 
good  service  in  its  day.  It  made  an  imposing  show  before 
the  designs  of  the  Holy  Alliance.  It  proved  to  be  de- 
cidedly effectual  with  Louis  Napoleon  and  Maximilian  in 
Mexico.  But  it  is  clearly  not  equal  to  solving  the  mo- 
mentous problem  of  how  a  ship  canal  from  ocean  to  ocean, 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  195 

designed  to  be  open  to  all  nations  and  neutral  in  all  wars, 
is  to  be  constructed  and  controlled  in  harmony  with  the 
sovereignty  and  the  interests  of  the  United  States.  This 
new  application  of  the  doctrine  is,  however,  so  much  in 
accordance  with  certain  currents  of  public  opinion  in  this 
country  that  it  requires  a  moment's  consideration. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  claim 
that  the  United  States  alone  shall  build  and  control  this 
and  every  transit  across  the  isthmus  is  obviously  equiva- 
lent to  a  claim  of   sovereignty  over  the   State   through 
which  it  may  pass.     Colombia,  as  an  independent  nation, 
has  already  given  the  right  to  build  to  a  French  company, 
with  which  she  has  also  entered  into  very  heavy  pecuniary 
engagements.     This  she  had   an  undoubted  right  to  do. 
How  are  we  to  annul  those  engagements  except  by  a  forci- 
ble intervention  of  our  own,  or,  in  other  words,  by  a  war 
with  both  Colombia  and  France  ?     And  what  can  be  the 
issue  of  such  a  war  but  to  retard  the  progress  of  every  in- 
terest of  civilization,  and  to  bring  dishonor  and  reproach 
upon  our  national  character  ?  Our  Monroe  Doctrine,  which 
we  have  been  so  fond  of  parading  before  the  world,  was 
originally  designed  to  protect  the  independence  of  every 
State  on  the  American  continent ;  but  this  new  applica- 
tion of  it,  which  is  now  attempted,  threatens  the  destruc- 
tion of  every  State  when  our  interests  shall  seem  to  re- 
quire its  destruction.     If  these  Central  American  States 
are  to  be  thus  subjected  to  foreign  intervention,  they  may 
well   ask    us  the  significant  question  whether  we  saved 
them  from  the  Holy  Alliance  only  that  we  might  swallow 
them  up  ourselves. 

II.  Again,  it  is  also  to  be  kept  in  mind  that  this  new 
assumption   that  we    alone    must  build   and  control  the 
canal   is  wholly  at  variance  with  our   entire  policy  and 
agreements  concerning  it.    The  project  of  thus  connecting 
the  two  great  oceans  did  not  originate  with  us.     It  is  as 


196  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

old  as  the  discovery  of  the  continent.  Columbus  believed 
that  a  connecting  strait  already  existed,  and  he  made  his 
latest  voyage  for  the  special  purpose  of  finding  it.  After 
the  discovery  of  the  Pacific,  the  kings  of  Spain  constantly 
instructed  their  officers  in  America  to  see  if  a  water  com- 
munication could  not  be  opened  with  it  from  the  Atlantic. 
Subsequently  expeditions  were  sent  to  the  isthmus  by 
England,  by  Holland,  and  by  France,  some  of  them  be- 
fore the  United  States  were  in  existence,  and  all  of  them 
before  we  had  begun  to  manifest  any  interest  in  the  under- 
taking. So  soon,  however,  as  our  republic  had  extended 
its  territory  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  by  the  acquisition  of 
Louisiana  and  Florida,  the  project  began  to  be  regarded 
with  peculiar  interest  by  the  American  people.  This 
interest  has  deepened  with  the  lapse  of  years.  It  has 
acquired  new  force  from  every  new  development  of  our 
resources,  from  the  annexation  of  Texas,  from  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  Pacific  States,  and,  most  of  all,  from  the 
grander  national  life  which  has  burst  forth  in  every  direc- 
tion since  the  overthrow  of  slavery  and  the  triumphant 
close  of  the  civil  war. 

We  began  to  treat  on  this  subject  with  the  Central 
American  States  so  soon  as  they  became  independent. 
But  our  treaties  never  had  any  other  aim  than  to  secure 
absolute  and  perpetual  neutrality  of  any  canal  that  should 
be  built,  and  our  own  right  to  use  it  on  the  most  favorable 
terms.  In  one  or  two  instances,  we  have  agreed  to  guar- 
antee its  neutrality  and  security,  and  to  induce  other  na- 
tions to  unite  with  us  in  the  guarantee.  But  we  have 
never  before  sought  to  own  or  control  it,  much  less  to 
acquire  sovereign  jurisdiction  over  it.  On  the  contrary, 
in  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty  with  Great  Britain,  in  1850, 
the  two  countries  bound  themselves  by  a  solemn  engage- 
ment that  neither  shall  ever  obtain  or  exercise  any  con- 
trol over  the  canal,  or  erect  forts  commanding  it,  or  ex- 
ercise dominion  over  the  country  in  which  it  is  built,  or 


THE  MONROE   DOCTRINE.  197 

seek  to  obtain  any  advantage  for  the  citizens  of  either 
over  those  of  the  other.  And  what  is  here  to  be  specially 
observed,  the  two  countries  agree  to  "  give  their  encour- 
agement and  support  to  such  persons  or  company  as  may 
first  offer  to  commence  the  same,"  and  also  "  to  guarantee 
its  neutrality,  so  that  the  said  canal  may  be  forever  open 
and  free,  and  the  capital  invested  therein  be  secure." 

Under  the  implied  invitation  of  the  stipulations  of  this 
treaty,  numerous  routes  have  been  surveyed  and  reported 
upon  by  eminent  engineers  of  several  different  countries. 
Our  own  engineers  have  given  preference  to  the  route 
across  Nicaragua,  while  those  of  France  and  England 
have  declared  in  favor  of  that  across  Panama  at  Darien. 
It  is  along  this  latter  route  that  the  Count  de  Lesseps, 
the  eminent  constructor  of  the  Suez  Canal,  has  obtained 
the  requisite  concessions  from  the  government  of  Colom- 
bia, has  organized  his  company  of  French  capitalists,  and 
actually  begun  the  work  of  construction.  Meanwhile,  all 
that  we  have  done  about  it,  during  the  two  years  in  which 
this  preparation  has  been  going  on,  is  to  denounce  the 
whole  scheme  as  at  variance  with  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
as  a  movement  which  "  cannot  be  regarded  in  any  other 
light  than  as  the  manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  disposition 
towards  the  United  States  ; "  for  this  is  the  meaning  of 
President  Hayes's  message  on  the  subject,  and  also  of  the 
resolutions  now  before  both  houses  of  Congress.  Cer- 
tainly, no  one  can  expect  that  a  great  enterprise  in  the 
interest  of  commerce  and  civilization,  undertaken  by  pri- 
vate capitalists,  is  to  be  arrested  and  defeated  by  fulmi- 
nations  such  as  these. 

There  is,  however,  one  way,  and  so  far  as  I  see  it  is  the 
only  way,  which  it  would  become  a  great  and  magnani- 
mous people  to  adopt,  in  order  to  arrest  the  building  of 
the  canal  at  Darien  by  a  corporation  chartered  in  France  ; 
and  that  is,  immediately  to  build  another  and  better  one 
ourselves  by  the  Nicaragua  route,  —  a  route  nearer  our 


198  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

coast  by  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  and  making  the 
voyage  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  or  to  China 
shorter  by  twice  that  distance.  This  it  is  now  proposed 
to  do,  if  the  sanction  of  Congress  can  be  obtained.  A 
company  has  been  formed,  a  very  liberal  concession  has 
been  secured,  and  the  work  of  construction  is  ready  to  be 
commenced,  with  General  Grant  to  direct  it.  Under  such 
leadership,  and  with  so  many  advantages  and  inducements 
as  attend  the  enterprise,  it  will  be  a  strange  result  indeed 
if  we  cannot  do  this  work  far  more  successfully  than  the 
Count  de  Lesseps  with  his  French  company.  If  we  can- 
not and  do  not,  then  let  us  cheerfully  concede  that  he  is 
fully  entitled  to  all  the  success  he  may  achieve. 

Of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  it  only  remains  to  be  said  that, 
in  its  proper  and  historical  meaning,  it  has  done  its  work 
and  had  its  day.  The  country  has  passed  beyond  the  ex- 
igency which  called  it  forth,  and  any  new  exigencies  which 
may  come  hereafter  will  probably  demand  new  doctrines 
for  themselves.  Indeed,  this  is  even  now  true  of  the 
question  of  the  canal.  It  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine.  But  its  name  has  already  been  appro- 
priated by  a  certain  sentiment  long  existing  among  the 
American  people,  —  a  sentiment  which  makes  them  be- 
lieve that  the  whole  of  North  America,  if  not  the  whole  of 
the  western  hemisphere,  belongs,  by  reversionary  right, 
to  this  republic,  and  that  we  are  bound  to  repel  every 
agency  from  abroad  that  may  hinder  or  delay  our  final 
and  early  occupancy  and  possession.  Under  the  influence 
of  this  sentiment  we  have  become  wholly  indifferent  to  the 
fortunes  of  the  other  American  States,  and  now  regard 
these  States  very  much  as  temporary  occupants  of  terri- 
tories which  "  manifest  destiny "  has  assigned  to  the  re- 
publican empire  that  is  to  embrace  the  cisatlantic  world. 

This,  there  is  reason  to  apprehend,  is  fast  coming  to  be 
the  only  meaning  which  will  hereafter  be  attached  to  the 
Monroe  Doctrine. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION.1 

THE  origin  of  the  United  States  as  a  nation  was  in 
part  a  growth  and  in  part  a  creation.  As  a  growth  it 
had  been  silently  and  unconsciously  preparing  through 
the  whole  colonial  period ;  more  rapidly  and  surely  after 
the  troubles  with  England  began  in  1765, — still  more 
rapidly  after  the  meeting  of  the  first  Continental  Con- 
gress in  1774.  The  subsequent  collisions  of  arms  be- 
tween colonists  and  troops  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  later 
Congresses  of  1775  and  1776,  completed  the  preparation. 
These  Congresses  had  formed  the  colonies  into  United 
Colonies,  and  this  name  they  had  already  assumed.  They 
had  also  exercised  large  powers  of  a  national,  or,  as  it  was 
then  styled,  a  continental  character.  They  had  voted  to 
raise  an  army  and  a  navy,  had  appointed  a  commander-in- 
chief,  assessed  a  revenue,  established  a  post-office,  and  ad- 
vised the  colonies  to  adopt  separate  measures  to  secure  the 
rights  of  the  people,  and,  last  of  all,  they  had  incurred  a 
public  debt.  All  these  measures  of  high  public  authority, 
and  many  others  of  similar  import,  were  adopted  only  as 
measures  of  defense  of  the  rights  belonging  to  the  colonies 
as  a  part  of  the  British  Empire.  They  held  themselves 
to  be  justified  by  the  British  Constitution,  and  they  acted 
in  imitation  of  the  great  examples  of  the  illustrious  cham- 
pions of  British  freedom  in  all  ages,  of  the  barons  who 
obtained  the  Magna  Charta  from  King  John  at  Runny- 
mede,  and  of  John  Hampden,  who  resisted  the  ship  money 

1  Read  before  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  October  31, 
1882. 


200  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

of  Charles  I.  They,  however,  had  done  more  than  they 
imagined.  They  believed  themselves  to  be  only  resisting 
the  unjustifiable  taxation  of  Parliament.  They  were,  in 
reality,  even  then  an  embryo  nation,  and  on  the  very 
verge  of  a  separate  national  existence.  It  needed  but 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  make  this  existence 
an  unalterable  fact. 

The  Congress  of  1776,  like  those  of  the  two  preceding 
years,  was  in  reality  a  representative  popular  assembly, 
to  the  fullest  extent  that  was  consistent  with  the  habits 
of  the  age  and  the  condition  of  the  country.  In  those 
colonies  in  which  royal  governors  were  in  power,  its  mem- 
bers were  chosen  by  the  popular  branch  of  the  legislature 
as  the  obvious  representatives  of  the  people.  In  here 
and  there  a  colony  where  the  entire  government  was  op- 
posed to  the  popular  movement,  they  were  chosen  either 
by  a  colonial  Congress,  or  by  the  action  of  committees  of 
public  safety,  or  by  such  local  assemblies  of  the  people 
as  were  possible  in  the  circumstances.  In  Rhode  Island 
and  Connecticut,  which  had  charter  governments,  they 
were,  at  the  beginning,  chosen  by  both  houses  of  the  As- 
sembly, and  were  commissioned  by  the  Governor.  All 
the  members  of  this  Congress  came  together,  —  in  some 
instances  with  specific  instructions,  in  all  instances  with 
the  fullest  information  as  to  what  their  constituents  de- 
sired them  to  do.  So  soon,  also,  as  the  Declaration  was 
made  it  was  accepted  and  ratified  alike  by  legislative  ac- 
tion and  by  popular  demonstrations  in  every  part  of  the 
country.  It  unquestionably  breathed  the  spirit  and  em- 
bodied the  wishes  and  determinations  of  the  great  major- 
ity of  the  people  of  the  colonies. 

It  was  therefore  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  thus 
adopted,  proclaimed,  and  ratified,  that  called  into  being 
the  new  political  society,  —  the  United  States  of  America. 
It  created  a  new  sovereign  body  politic,  which  from  that 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION.   201 

time  has  claimed  and  maintained  an  equal  place  among 
the  nations  of  the  world.  Up  to  this  time,  the  colonies, 
though  taking  vigorous  measures  of  redress,  had  not 
ceased  to  regard  themselves  as  dependencies  of  England 
and  subject  to  her  dominion.  By  the  Declaration,  how- 
ever, their  people  formed  themselves  into  a  separate  sov- 
ereignty, and  each  colony,  having  now  become  a  State, 
came  to  sustain  to  this  sovereignty  relations  in  some  re- 
spects similar  to  those  hitherto  sustained  to  Great  Brit- 
ain. It  was  by  the  direction  and  authority  of  Congress 
that  each  State  now  formed  for  itself  a  new  constitution 
or  modified  its  existing  charter,  to  suit  its  new  relations. 
These  relations,  it  is  true,  were  left  wholly  undefined,  ex- 
cept that  they  were  of  necessity,  for  certain  purposes,  re- 
lations of  subordination  to  the  United  States,  while  for 
certain  other  purposes  they  were  left  quite  independent. 
It  was  never,  then,  claimed  that  the  Declaration  created 
thirteen  independent  sovereign  States.  Independence  and 
sovereignty,  in  their  full  sense,  were  accorded  to  the 
United  States  alone.  The  nation,  from  the  beginning, 
was  expected  to  conduct  the  War  of  Independence;  to  pro- 
tect, if  necessary,  every  State  from  Indian  depredations ; 
to  maintain  foreign  relations ;  and,  in  the  words  of  the 
Declaration,  "to  do  all  other  acts  and  things  which  in- 
dependent States  may  of  right  do."  It  was,  from  its  very 
nature  and  in  the  name  of  those  who  created  it,  to  act  for 
those  high  national  ends  and  interests  in  which  all  the  peo- 
ple and  all  the  States  had  a  common  concern.  No  single 
State  ever  dreamed  of  winning  its  own  separate  indepen- 
dence, or  of  sending  its  own  ambassadors  to  the  courts  of 
foreign  nations,  or,  indeed,  of  performing  any  other  act  of 
independent  sovereignty. 

In  the  loose  mode  of  thinking  on  social  questions  and 
among  the  inadequate  views  of  jural  rights  and  obliga- 
tions which  then  prevailed,  it  is  not  probable  that  the 


202  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

relations  of  the  States  to  the  Union  were  fully  compre- 
hended or  that  they  really  engaged  much  attention.  In- 
deed, the  leading  embarrassment  of  the  time  arose  from 
the  fact  that  all  political  ideas  and  interests  were  exceed- 
ingly narrow  and  local.  Intercourse  had  always  been  re- 
stricted. The  colonies,  fringing  the  Atlantic  coast  for 
nearly  a  thousand  miles,  were  of  necessity  but  slightly 
known  to  each  other,  and  their  social  bonds  were  of  very 
slender  character.  Besides  this,  it  must  also  be  admitted 
that  the  words  of  the  Declaration  bearing  on  these  rela- 
tions were  much  less  precise  and  explicit  than  they  ought 
to  have  been,  and  that,  to  say  the  very  least,  they  did  not 
fail  to  suggest  the  idea  that,  after  all,  it  was  the  States 
which  had  declared  themselves  independent,  and  that  the 
States  were  now  sovereign.  Nor,  indeed,  was  this  sug- 
gestion different,  in  a  certain  sense,  from  the  actual  fact. 
They  were,  by  their  very  organization,  in  many  respects, 
independent  of  each  other  as  well  as  of  Great  Britain. 
They  were  also  sovereign,  for  certain  purposes,  and  these 
purposes  were  liable  to  be  multiplied  according  as  the  in- 
terests or  the  conceits  of  States  might  demand.  Ideas 
of  independence  and  sovereignty,  once  entertained,  are 
highly  stimulating  to  the  popular  mind,  especially  in  infant 
nations.  It  is  not  very  surprising,  therefore,  that  the 
States  almost  immediately,  in  their  legislative  acts  and 
in  some  of  their  constitutions,  began  to  style  themselves 
sovereign  and  independent,  and  to  accustom  the  people 
both  to  the  phraseology  and  to  the  idea  which  it  ex- 
pressed. 

But,  notwithstanding  all  pretensions  and  all  declara- 
tions to  the  contrary,  the  nation,  for  all  executive  pur- 
poses, at  least,  was  always  held  to  be  greater  than  any 
State  or  all  the  States  by  themselves.  And  it  has  ever 
since  remained  the  practical  principle  of  our  American 
institutions  that  the  Union  alone  is  the  depositary  of  su- 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION.   203 

prerae  and  sovereign  power,  that  the  Union  alone  is  the 
nation,  and  that  to  the  Union  every  citizen  and  every 
State  are  bound  by  obligations  of  paramount  allegiance. 
There  have  been  questions  of  nullification,  questions  of 
secession,  and  questions  of  dissolution,  but  it  has  never 
been  seriously  maintained  that,  so  long  as  the  Union  ex- 
ists, it  alone  may  of  right  exercise  the  higher  attributes 
of  sovereignty  for  all  its  component  parts.  And  this  is 
equally  true  whatever  may  be  the  government  which,  for 
the  time,  may  be  administering  its  affairs ;  for  it  is  not 
the  mode  of  its  government  that  makes  it  a  sovereign, 
but  the  jural  obligations  which  its  people  have  assumed, 
the  solemn  agreements  which  bind  them  together  and  con- 
stitute them  a  nation. 

The  United  States  existed  in  fact  as  a  nation  for  nearly 
five  years  without  any  written  instrument  of  government. 
It  was,  however,  as  sovereign  then  as  it  has  been  since. 
The  only  government  which  directed  national  affairs  was 
the  Congress  which  had  been  called  into  existence  for 
obtaining  redress  of  the  public  grievances,  and  which,  in 
obedience  to  the  voice  of  the  nation,  had  made  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence.  It  was  from  the  beginning  a 
purely  revolutionary  assembly,  possessed  of  no  formally 
delegated  authority,  but  it  was  expected  to  do  everything 
that  might  be  necessary  for  securing  the  independence 
which  had  been  declared  by  its  authority.  No  American 
Congress  of  later  times  has  ever  assumed  functions  more 
important  or  exercised  powers  more  absolute.  On  one 
occasion,  in  the  first  year  of  the  war,  it  proceeded  to  in- 
vest the  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  with  unlimited 
military  authority,  such  as  the  Roman  Senate  sometimes 
gave  to  the  Dictators;  and,  notwithstanding  its  revolu- 
tionary origin,  it  continued  to  be  the  only  general  gov- 
ernment of  the  country  from  1776  to  1781.  It  was  not 
till  this  latter  date  that  the  "  Articles  of  Confederation  " 


204  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

were  adopted  and  set  in  operation.  The  duration  of  this 
second  government  extended  to  the  adoption  of  the  pres- 
ent Constitution  and  the  inauguration  of  President  Wash- 
ington in  1789.  It  is  this  period  of  eight  years,  lying  be- 
tween the  government  of  the  revolutionary  Congress  and 
the  government  established  by  the  present  Constitution, 
that  is  in  this  essay  designated  "  The  Confederation  Pe- 
riod." It  is  not  a  period  in  which  the  student  of  our 
political  history  finds  much  to  gratify  national  pride  or 
to  awaken  patriotic  sentiment.  It  illustrates,  however,  the 
character  of  our  American  institutions,  and  points  out  the 
origin  of  the  evil  tendencies  and  the  conflicting  forces  that 
have  done  so  much  to  shape  our  career  as  a  nation. 

I  have  said  that  the  Articles  of  Confederation  went  into 
effect  in  1781.  They  were,  indeed,  framed  and  placed 
before  the  country  long  before  they  were  adopted  as  the 
fundamental  law.  On  June  10,  1776,  the  very  day  on 
which  the  committee  was  appointed  to  draft  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence,  a  separate  committee  was  also 
named  "  to  prepare  and  digest  the  form  of  a  confeder- 
ation to  be  entered  into  between  these  colonies."  This 
latter  committee  reported  a  form  of  confederation  on  the 
12th  of  July,  thirty-one  days  after  its  appointment.  This 
was  frequently  the  subject  of  debate  till  the  20th  of  Au- 
gust, when  its  form  was  somewhat  changed.  The  whole 
subject  was  then  laid  aside  for  nearly  eight  months,  till 
the  8th  of  April,  1777.  The  Articles  were  then  again 
taken  up  for  debate  ;  many  amendments  were  proposed, 
and  at  least  one  that  shows  the  bad  ideas  of  the  times 
was  agreed  to,  and  was  embodied  in  Article  2 :  "  Each 
State  retains  its  sovereignty,  freedom,  and  independence, 
and  any  power,  jurisdiction,  and  right  which  is  not  by 
this  Confederation  expressly  delegated  to  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled."  With  this  unfortunate 
provision  superadded  to  them,  the  Articles  of  Confeder- 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION.   205 

ation  were  adopted  by  Congress  and  sent  to  the  States 
for  ratification  on  November  15,  1777,  nearly  seventeen 
months  after  they  were  first  reported.  They  were  to  go 
into  effect  when  ratified  by  the  legislature  of  every  State. 
They  were  styled  "  Articles  of  Confederation  and  Per- 
petual Union  between  the  States,"  and  they  created  what 
was  only  a  league  of  state  governments,  in  which  the  peo- 
ple of  the  country  had  no  direct  participation  or  agency 
of  any  kind.  The  characteristics  of  this  first  written  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  are  so  well  known  that  I 
need  refer  only  to  here  and  there  an  illustration.  1.  The 
new  Articles  were  not  much  more  than  a  mere  embodi- 
ment in  writing  of  the  general  mode  of  proceeding  which 
had  been  observed  in  the  revolutionary  Congress  already 
existing.  Beyond  this  crudely  extemporized  method  of 
carrying  on  public  affairs  it  would  appear  that  the  com- 
mittee were  unable  to  stretch  their  comprehension.  2. 
According  to  this  unfortunate  model,  they  vested  all  the 
powers  of  the  government,  executive,  judicial,  and  legisla- 
tive, in  a  single  assembly,  which  was  still  to  be  called  a 
Congress,  composed  of  not  more  than  seven,  nor  less  than 
two  members  from  each  State,  chosen  as  the  legislature 
might  direct,  and  making  a  body  which,  when  fully  at- 
tended by  the  States,  might  have  ninety-one  members  for 
its  maximum  and  twenty-six  members  for  its  minimum. 
In  this  body  each  State  was  to  have  a  single  vote,  which 
was  wholly  lost  if  only  one  delegate  was  present ;  and  all 
measures  of  importance  must  receive  the  votes  of  at  least 
nine  States,  and  other  measures  the  votes  of  at  least  seven 
States.  3.  Members  of  the  Congress  were  not  eligible 
more  than  three  years  in  any  six,  and  no  member  could 
be  chosen  President  of  Congress  for  more  than  one  year 
in  succession.  4.  The  members  were  to  be  paid  and  con- 
trolled by  the  state  governments.  This  composition  of 
the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  was  singularly  fatal  to 


206  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

anything  like  unity  or  efficiency  in  a  body  designed  for 
managing  national  affairs.  But  this  was  really  the  least 
important  of  the  inherent  defects  of  the  whole  system.  It 
was  full  of  contradictions.  The  proposed  Articles  gave  to 
a  Congress  in  which  was  embodied  the  entire  national  au- 
thority the  sole  power  to  declare  war,  to  make  peace,  to 
regulate  weights  and  measures,  to  form  treaties,  to  borrow 
money,  and  incur  all  the  necessary  expenses  of  conducting 
national  affairs,  but  they  withheld  the  power  to  collect 
any  revenue  whatever.  The  States  alone  had  the  right  to 
levy  duties  and  to  collect  taxes  as  well  as  to  fix  the  rate 
of  both,  nor  was  there  a  single  source  of  revenue  in  the 
country  that  was  under  the  control  of  Congress.  The 
Articles  provided  for  a  general  treasury,  but  it  was  to  be 
supplied  solely  by  means  of  assessments  made  on  the  sev- 
eral States.  Congress,  though  it  had  the  power  to  declare 
war,  could  not  enlist  a  single  soldier.  It  could  appoint 
foreign  ambassadors,  but  it  could  not  support  them  while 
abroad.  It  could  contract  debts,  but  it  could  not  pay 
them.  It  was  required  to  assume  all  national  responsi- 
bility and  to  discharge  all  national  obligations  alike  in 
peace  and  in  war,  but  it  must  depend  for  the  means  of 
doing  this  on  the  uncertain  and  reluctant  votes  of  the 
state  legislatures.  In  doing  this  it  could  enact,  but  it- 
could  not  execute.  It  could  make  treaties,  but  it  could 
not  secure  their  fulfilment.  It  could  vote  levies  of  money 
on  the  States,  but  it  could  not  collect  a  dollar  of  these 
levies  even  for  the  most  pressing  necessity,  unless  they 
were  allowed  by  the  legislatures. 

Such,  in  its  general  outlines,  was  the  government  of 
the  Confederation.  It  seems  to  have  been  all  that  the 
collected  statesmanship  of  Congress  could  then  contrive 
for  the  new  republic.  It  is  one  of  the  foremost  marvels 
of  American  history,  not  to  say  one  of  the  chief  humili- 
ations which  it  records,  that  a  government  so  crude  and 


THE  PERIOD   OF  THE   CONFEDERATION.       207 

ill-devised  was  proposed  by  Congress,  ratified  by  the 
States,  and  suffered  to  bring  its  calamitous  consequences 
on  the  country.  One  asks  in  vain  where  were  the  illus- 
trious leaders  of  the  age  when  such  a  wretched  caricature 
of  all  national  authority  was  proposed  for  the  American 
people  ?  A  few  of  them,  we  know,  saw  and  deplored  the 
inherent  feebleness  of  the  system,  but  amidst  the  narrow 
views  and  local  jealousies  which  then  prevailed,  they  were 
powerless  in  making  it  better.  Most  of  them,  however, 
it  must  be  confessed,  wholly  failed  to  discern  its  total 
inadequacy  for  the  necessities  of  the  country. 

The  "  Articles  of  Confederation  and  Perpetual  Union  " 
were  adopted  in  Congress  on  November  17,  1777,  and 
were  immediately  sent  to  the  States  with  a  circular  letter 
urging  their  ratification  by  the  legislature  of  each  before 
the  10th  of  March,  1778.  But  when  that  day  came,  very 
few  of  the  state  legislatures  had  acted  upon  them,  and  the 
matter  was  not  called  up  in  Congress  till  the  10th  of  the 
following  July.  In  the  course  of  that  month  the  ratifica- 
tions of  ten  States  were  officially  reported  by  their  dele- 
gations. The  remaining  three  were  New  Jersey,  Dela- 
ware, and  Maryland.  Amendments,  meanwhile,  had  been 
proposed  by  at  least  nine  of  the  States,  but  not  one  of 
^hem  was  adopted  by  Congress. 

But  what  especially  delayed  the  ratification  of  New 
Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Maryland  was  the  question  as  to 
the  ownership  of  the  western  lands  claimed  under  the 
charters  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  Vir- 
ginia, North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia.  These 
lands  had  been  the  property  of  Great  Britain,  and  were 
styled  "  Crown  Lands."  It  was  contended  by  the  non- 
claiming  States  that  whatever  lands  had  belonged  to  the 
crown  should  now  belong  to  the  United  States  ;  that  the 
right  to  possess  them  had  been  secured  by  the  common 
sacrifices  and  blood  of  all  the  States,  and  that  it  would  be 


208  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

both  unjust  and  injurious  to  allow  them  to  become  the 
property  of  a  few  separate  States,  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
others.  Virginia  and  New  York  made  the  largest  claims, 
but  at  least  three  other  States  deemed  their  own  to  be 
too  valuable  to  be  readily  abandoned.  Rhode  Island  had 
no  claims  of  any  kind,  and  scarcely  any  territory,  but 
greatly  to  her  credit  she  was  among  the  earliest  to  ratify 
the  Confederation,  an  act  which  was  prompted  by  purely 
patriotic  considerations,  and  by  the  generous  belief  that 
the  question  of  the  lands  would  be  finally  settled  on  an 
honorable  basis.  The  country  was  already  taunted  with 
its  want  of  organized  national  authority,  and  Congress  ex- 
pressed its  apprehensions  as  to  the  effect  of  this  on  its 
foreign  relations,  especially  on  its  relations  with  France. 
In  these  circumstances  New  Jersey  decided  to  waive  her 
objections,  and  to  accede  to  the  Confederation,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1778  ;  she  was  followed  by  Delaware  in  February, 
1779  ;  both  these  States  adopting  substantially  the  form 
of  ratification  which  had  been  used  in  Rhode  Island,  and 
trusting  to  the  justice  of  their  sister  States.  Maryland 
now  stood  alone  in  her  refusal.  Congress  again  appealed 
to  her  patriotic  sentiments.  She  replied  that  nothing 
would  separate  her  from  the  cause  of  American  inde- 
pendence, but  that  the  allowance  of  the  claims  of  Virgi,- 
nia  would  be  fatal  to  her  own  interests,  and  also  fatal  to 
the  interests  of  the  Union. 

This  repeated  refusal  of  Maryland  gave  the  greatest 
uneasiness  to  the  other  States,  especially  as  the  substan- 
tial justice  of  her  position  could  not  be  denied.  In  this 
condition  of  affairs,  New  York  decided,  by  an  act  of  legis- 
lature in  February,  1780,  to  fix  the  boundary  of  the  State 
and  to  surrender  the  lands  beyond  it  to  the  United  States. 
Congress  now  appealed  to  the  other  States  claiming  such 
lands  to  follow  this  example,  and  at  the  same  time  again 
entreated  Maryland  to  accede  to  the  Confederation.  That 


THE  PERIOD   OF  THE   CONFEDERATION.       209 

patriotic  State,  confident  that  the  example  of  New  York 
must  soon  be  followed  by  Virginia,  and  desirous  to  show 
her  attachment  to  the  common  cause  of  national  indepen- 
dence, proceeded  to  ratify  the  new  government  on  Jan- 
uary 30,  1781.  But  as  Maryland,  for  some  time,  had  but 
a  single  delegate  present  in  Congress,  her  ratification  was 
not  formally  presented  and  carried  into  effect  till  the  first 
day  of  the  following  March.  The  Confederacy  was  now 
completed  by  the  accession  of  the  thirteenth  State  to  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  at  the  end  of  three  years  and 
nearly  four  months  after  they  were  sent  to  the  States  for 
ratification,  and  of  four  years  and  nearly  nine  months 
after  they  were  first  reported  in  Congress  by  the  com- 
mittee that  prepared  them  in  July,  1776. 

It  was  on  the  following  day,  March  2,  1781,  that  Con- 
gress was  first  organized  under  the  new  fundamental  law. 
One  of  the  members  of  that  body,  a  citizen  of  Rhode  Isl- 
and, then  in  Philadelphia,  wrote  to  the  Governor  on  the 
5th  of  March  as  follows :  "  The  Confederation  was  com- 
pleted last  Thursday  at  twelve  o'clock,  and  at  the  same 
time  was  announced  by  the  discharge  of  a  number  of  can- 
non, both  on  the  land  and  on  the  Delaware.  The  Presi- 
dent of  Congress  gave  a  general  invitation  to  the  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  the  President  of  the  State,  his  council, 
and  the  House  of  Assembly  and  the  civil  and  military 
officers  of  Congress,  to  wait  upon  him  at  his  own  house  at 
two  o'clock,  where  they  partook  of  a  cold  collation.  In 
the  afternoon  Captain  Jones  fired  a  feu  de  joie  on  board 
the  Ariel.  In  the  evening  a  number  of  fireworks  were 
played  off,  and  the  whole  concluded  in  the  greatest  har- 
mony to  the  great  satisfaction  of  every  true  friend  of  his 
country  and  mortification  of  the  infamous  Tories,  who 
have  long  plumed  themselves  with  the  vain  hope  that  our 
Union  would  soon  crumble  to  pieces.  Our  State  was  not 
represented."  I  do  not  know  that  the  event  was  cele- 


210  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

brated  anywnere  else  in  the  country  even  with  this  "  cold 
collation "  enthusiasm  which  it  seems  to  have  roused  in 
Philadelphia.  It  really  touched  no  chord  of  patriotic 
sentiment  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Nor  was  there  any 
reason  why  it  should.  The  new  government  most  unfor- 
tunately was  a  mere  league  of  the  state  legislatures,  about 
which  the  people  had  not  been  consulted  and  in  the  mak- 
ing of  which  they  had  taken  no  part.  This  first  "  ship  of 
State "  had  been  five  years  in  building  and  many  of  its 
timbers  were  already  rotten,  while  some  of  the  most  essen- 
tial were  wholly  wanting,  and  only  here  and  there  one  was 
really  sound  and  in  its  right  place.  It  was  to  be  com- 
manded not  by  a  captain  chosen  by  the  American  people, 
but  by  a  council  of  its  thirteen  owners.  Who  could  be 
expected  to  rejoice  over  the  launching  of  a  craft  which 
may  be  well  described  as 

"  that  fatal  and  perfidious  bark 
Built  in  th'  eclipse  and  rigg'd  with  curses  dark  "  ? 

With  auspices  such  as  these  the  Articles  of  Confedera- 
tion, the  first  written  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
were  adopted  and  set  in  operation.  The  event,  however, 
produced  no  important  change  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
government  save  that  these  proceedings  were  now  sub- 
ject to  an  inflexible  law.  They  had  been  made  to  con- 
form very  nearly  to  the  existing  mode  of  conducting  pub- 
lic affairs.  The  presence  of  at  least  two  delegates  from  a 
State  was  now  required  in  order  to  cast  its  vote.  With 
less  than  two  its  vote  was  wholly  lost,  a  provision  which 
soon  after,  for  months  in  succession,  left  Congress  with- 
out a  working  majority.  The  ineligibility  of  members 
for  more  than  three  years  in  any  six,  and  of  the  presid- 
ing officer  for  more  than  one  year  in  succession,  not  only 
tended  to  make  that  body  inefficient  by  the  exclusion  of 
its  experienced  members,  but  to  take  from  it  all  attrac- 


THE  PERIOD   OF  THE   CONFEDERATION.       211 

tions  as  a  theatre  of  statesmanship,  and  to  render  it  any- 
thing but  a  school  in  which  men  were  to  learn  the  lessons 
of  public  service.  The  result  was  that  the  service  of  the 
States  became  vastly  more  an  object  of  ambition  than 
that  of  the  United  States.  In  this  manner  the  Congress 
of  the  Confederation  soon  presented  a  marked  decline 
especially  from  the  early  Congresses  of  the  Revolution. 
They  had  sprung  suddenly  into  being  at  the  bidding  of 
the  continental  will.  They  placed  themselves  at  the  head 
of  a  mighty  movement  for  independence,  and  they  were 
expected  to  do  and  to  ordain  whatever  that  movement,  in 
its  successive  exigencies,  should  demand.  The  Congresses 
of  1775  and  1776  had  exercised  vast  powers,  and  to  these 
powers  there  was  no  limit  that  could  be  assigned.  Not 
so  with  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation.  Its  powers 
were  limited  by  a  written  fundamental  law,  so  worded 
and  so  contrived  as  to  leave  only  the  semblance  of  au- 
thority to  the  national  government.  It  no  longer  repre- 
sented the  spirit  and  energy  which  had  asserted  the  essen- 
tial rights  of  man,  which  had  declared  the  independence 
of  the  colonies,  which  had  summoned  the  continent  to 
arms  and  defied  the  power  of  the  British  empire.  It  no 
longer  spoke  and  acted  with  the  authority  of  the  nation. 
Its  members  ceased  to  act  for  the  American  people,  but 
now,  as  mere  envoys  of  the  States,  they  were  compelled 
simply  to  execute  the  will  of  their  respective  legislatures. 
It  bore  the  name  of  a  government,  but  it  possessed  scarcely 
an  attribute  of  government.  For  a  time  it  favorably  im- 
pressed the  courts  of  Europe,  till  its  inherent  feebleness 
came  to  be  understood,  and  this  was  its  only  advantage 
over  the  revolutionary  government  which  it  supplanted. 

But  far  more  than  this  is  true  of  the  Articles  of  Con- 
federation. They  were  at  variance  with  the  true  spirit 
and  the  real  attitude  of  the  American  people  in  the  work 
of  national  organization.  They  were  an  illogical  and 


212  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

illegitimate  conclusion  from  the  doctrines  of  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence.  They  made  the  United  States 
appear  no  longer  a  sovereign  nation,  with  vast  resources 
in  its  control  and  vast  possibilities  within  its  reach,  but 
a  loosely  formed  compact  of  state  governments,  of  which 
the  design  would  seem  to  be  to  render  the  central  gov- 
ernment as  weak  as  possible,  and  the  state  government 
as  strong  as  possible.  How  different  is  all  this  from  the 
ringing  utterances  of  the  men  who  were  present  in  the 
Congress  which  called  the  nation  into  being !  Of  Patrick 
Henry,  who  exclaimed  in  the  Congress  of  1774,  "  The  dis- 
tinctions between  Virginians,  Pennsylvanians,  New  York- 
ers, and  New  Englanders  are  no  more.  I  am  not  a  Vir- 
ginian :  I  am  an  American."  Of  Wilson,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, who  said  :  "  As  to  those  matters  which  are  referred 
to  Congress  we  are  not  so  many  States  ;  we  are  one  large 
State.  We  lay  aside  our  individuality  when  we  come 
here."  Or  of  John  Adams,  who  said  in  the  Congress  of 
1776,  "  We  shall  no  longer  retain  our  separate  individ- 
uality, but  become  a  single  individual  as  to  all  questions 
submitted  to  the  Confederacy."  Sentiments  like  these 
had  utterly  vanished  from  the  public  councils  when  the 
Confederation  went  into  operation.  Whatever  its  framers 
may  have  intended,  and  Wilson  was  one  of  them,  its 
practical  effect  was  exactly  the  opposite  of  anticipations 
such  as  I  have  cited. 

A  falling  off  so  signal  and  deplorable  in  the  whole  con- 
struction of  this  first  national  Constitution  from  the  ori- 
ginal spirit  and  the  obvious  necessities  of  the  country  is 
not  readily  explained.  Von  Hoist,  a  recent  writer  on  our 
constitutional  history,  ascribes  it  very  largely  to  the  fact 
that  the  Confederation  was  framed  by  Congress  and  rati- 
fied by  the  legislatures  of  the  States,  instead  of  being- 
framed  by  a  National  Convention  and  ratified  by  a  con- 
vention in  each  of  the  States.  There  can  be  no  doubt 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION.   213 

that  this  was  a  political  blunder  of  the  gravest  character, 
and  that  neither  Congress  nor  the  state  legislatures  had 
any  authority  to  frame  or  ratify  a  Constitution  for  the 
United  States.  The  entire  proceeding,  in  its  form,  was 
wholly  at  variance  with  the  American  idea  of  popular 
sovereignty.  But  this  alone  did  not  make  the  Confeder- 
ation the  thing  it  was,  nor  is  there  any  reason  to  believe 
that  it  would  have  been  essentially  different  had  it  been 
framed  and  ratified  in  any  other  mode  which  was  at  that 
time  practicable.  It  undoubtedly  reflected  the  prevail- 
ing views  of  the  kind  of  government  which  the  country 
needed.  The  trouble  was  of  deeper  origin.  The  views 
themselves,  alike  of  statesmen  and  of  people,  were  lament- 
ably narrow  and  one-sided,  and  wholly  inadequate  either 
to  the  emergency  of  the  time  or  the  well-being  of  the 
country.  With  such  views  controlling  the  minds  of  the 
people,  the  Confederation  could  not  have  been  essentially 
different  from  what  it  was,  however  it  had  been  framed 
or  however  it  had  been  ratified.  Indeed  the  country,  as 
distinct  from  the  States,  was  in  reality  a  matter  of  very 
little  concern.  The  minds  of  the  people  had  not  learned 
to  take  it  in.  A  sovereign  nation  had  been  called  into 
existence,  but  its  own  people  did  not  comprehend  their 
relations  to  it,  or  have  any  but  the  crudest  conception  of 
its  true  character  and  office.  It  was  taken  for  granted 
that  all  would  be  well  with  the  United  States  if  all  was 
well  with  the  separate  States,  and  to  secure  this  latter  re- 
sult each  State  devoted  its  energies  to  taking  care  of  it- 
self, to  reconstructing  its  own  government,  and  to  looking 
simply  after  its  own  local  interests.  Thirteen  popula- 
tions so  distinct  as  those  of  the  early  States  could  not  be 
wrought  into  a  nation  in  so  brief  a  space  of  time.  Until 
the  struggle  for  independence  began  they  had  never  acted 
together  or  had  interests  in  common.  The  mother  coun- 
try had  till  then  been  their  only  bond  of  union,  and  now 


214  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

that  this  was  swept  away,  they  had  in  its  place  the  United 
States,  which  thus  far  was  little  more  than  an  abstract 
idea,  a  vague  sentiment,  not  yet  embodied  in  any  na- 
tional insignia  or  officers  of  state,  or  other  representatives 
of  sovereign  power.  In  this  manner  the  States  almost 
unconsciously  looked  upon  the  Union,  not  as  the  supreme 
and  essential  head  of  the  political  framework,  but  as  a 
mere  contrivance  of  their  own  which  had  been  devised 
for  securing  for  themselves  a  place  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth. 

Besides  this  pitiful  narrowness  of  political  thinking, 
there  sprang  up  very  early  in  the  States  an  intense  jeal- 
ousy of  all  power  not  belonging  to  themselves.  They 
were  haunted  by  the  idea  that  they  were  likely,  in  some 
way,  to  lose  their  liberties  even  before  they  had  fully 
secured  them.  They  thought  that  liberty  was  the  only 
end  to  be  provided  for  in  civil  society.  The  vultus  in- 
stantis  tyranni  glared  continually  on  their  morbid  imagi- 
nations as  a  constant  menace  of  their  independence,  —  as 
the  only  danger  in  their  pathway.  Even  the  feeble  and 
half-fed  army  that  was  fighting  their  battles  was  regarded 
with  ceaseless  apprehensions.  Both  the  States  and  their 
public  men  gave  only  a  reluctant  and  imperfect  confidence 
to  the  illustrious  commander-in-chief  who,  more  than  any 
mortal  man  before  or  since,  was  bearing  on  his  own  shoul- 
ders the  fortunes  of  his  country.  But  this  unreasonable  and 
idle  jealousy  found  its  most  conspicuous  object  in  the  cen- 
tral authority  that  represented  the  nation.  The  States  very 
early  began  to  regard  this  new  power  that  seemed  to  be 
above  them  all  with  feelings  of  distrust  and  aversion,  such 
as  when  colonies  they  had  constantly  cherished  towards 
Great  Britain.  They  chained  it  by  their  Articles  of  Con- 
federation ;  they  disregarded  it ;  they  evaded  it ;  they  even 
defied  it  when  it  restricted  their  authority  or  thwarted 
their  purposes. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION.   215 

Considerations  and  facts  such  as  these,  I  think,  show 
that  the  nation,  at  that  time,  was  absolutely  incapable 
either  of  framing  or  of  approving  a  mode  of  administer- 
ing national  affairs  essentially  different  from  that  of  the 
Confederation.  They  also  show  that,  even  then,  there  were 
planted  in  the  minds  of  the  American  people  those  con- 
ceits of  state  sovereignty  which,  after  seventy  years  of 
struggle,  were  at  length  destroyed  only  on  the  bloody  fields 
of  the  civil  war. 

In  a  condition  of  public  opinion  like  this,  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Confederation  was  set  in  operation  on  March 
2,  1781.  It  is  little  to  say  that  it  was  a  failure  from  the 
beginning.  It  was  much  more  than  a  failure.  It  had 
been  before  the  people  for  four  years  before  its  adoption, 
its  principles  were  familiar,  and  its  demoralizing  power 
had  already  been  felt  in  every  part  of  the  country.  It 
proved  to  be  probably  the  most  lamentable  instrument  of 
government  ever  devised  among  a  free  people  for  degrad- 
ing the  national  character,  for  debasing  the  national  con- 
science, for  blighting  generous  sentiments  and  heroic 
purposes,  and  for  destroying  the  essential  unity  and  integ- 
rity of  civil  society.  It  was  not  corrupt ;  it  was  not  des- 
potic. It  was  only  feeble,  timid,  and  incapable  ;  and  this 
because  it  was  powerless  for  the  very  purposes  it  was  de- 
signed to  accomplish. 

I.  In  October,  1781,  the  united  arms  of  France  and 
America  won  the  victory  at  Yorktown,  and  virtually  de- 
cided the  question  of  independence.  Had  Congress  now 
possessed  the  requisite  energy  and  power,  peace  would 
have  soon  followed.  It  made  its  requisitions  for  money 
and  men  on  the  States,  but  as  usual  they  were  not  fur- 
nished. The  legislatures  criticised  the  assessments,  and 
called  in  question  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  made. 
In  some  States  they  even  suggested  that  France  ought  to 
bear  the  expenses  of  the  coming  campaign.  In  this  dis- 


216  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

graceful  emergency,  as  in  nearly  every  other  that  arose 
during  the  war,  Congress  was  compelled  to  ask  Washing- 
ton to  use  his  influence  with  the  state  authorities  in  secur- 
ing the  quotas  that  were  needed. 

II.  The  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  army  had  continued 
without  pay  almost  from  the  beginning  of  the  war,  because 
the  States  did  not  respond  to  the  requisitions  of  Congress. 
Several  plans  of  adjustment  had  been  proposed,  but  with- 
out successful  result.     In  consequence  of  the  feeling  of 
injustice  now  prevailing,  certain  regiments,  first  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  afterwards  of   New  Jersey,  rushed  like  a 
tumultuous  mob  to  Philadelphia  to  demand  satisfaction  of 
Congress.     The  story  of  the  Newburgh  Addresses  affords 
a  still  graver  illustration  of  the  desperation  to  which  even 
officers  of  rank  and  of  high  character  were  wrought  by 
the  seeming  indifference  and  contempt  as  well  as  the  gross 
injustice  with  which  they  were  treated  by  the  government 
of  the  country.     Had  it  not  been  for  the  unequalled  judg- 
ment and  the  peerless  influence  of  Washington,  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Confederation  might  then  have  come  to 
an  ignoble  and  perhaps  a  violent  end. 

III.  Meanwhile  Congress  continued  to  decline  both  in 
efficiency  and  in  public  estimation,  and  in  its  own  self- 
respect.     Few  of  the  ablest  men  of  the  country  were  now 
among  its  members,  and  it  constantly  illustrated  its  want 
of  capacity  to  maintain  its  position  as  the  representative 
of  the  national  sovereignty.     The  war  was  now  ended, 
and  Washington,  after  depositing  with  the  Treasury  an 
exact  statement   of    his  expenses  as  commander-in-chief, 
and  refusing  all  compensation  for  his  eight  years'  services, 
requested  that  a  day  should  be  named  for  him  to  submit 
in  person  the  resignation  of  his  commission.     The  occa- 
sion  was   one  of    transcendent  interest  and    unequalled 
moral  grandeur.     But  it  was  not  till  the  22d  of  December 
(1783),  six  weeks  after  the  session  began,  that  twenty 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION.   217 

members,  and  these  from  only  seven  States,  were  present 
to  do  honor  to  the  illustrious  chief  of  the  Revolution  and 
the  country's  foremost  benefactor.  The  treaty  of  peace 
with  England  had  been  signed  on  the  3d  of  September, 
and  now  waited  ratification  by  Congress;  but  even  this 
great  consummation  was  delayed  till  January  14,  1784, 
because  the  delegations  of  nine  States,  the  requisite  num- 
ber, could  not  be  brought  together  to  act  upon  it. 

IV.  Equally  humiliating  was  the  civil  administration  of 
the  government  both  at  home  and  abroad.     The  public 
debt  was  not  only  without  any  provision  for  its  payment, 
but  its  interest  was  largely  in  arrears.     Even  the  restora- 
tion of  peace  did  nothing  to  revive  the  sentiment  of  na- 
tional honor.     The  state  legislatures  disregarded  the  pro- 
visions of  treaties  and  broke  the  solemn  pledges  of  the 
nation.     The  treaty  of  peace  could  not  go  into  full  effect 
because  of  state  laws  in  conflict  with  its  provisions,  which 
the  legislatures  refused  to  repeal.     Applications  for  for- 
eign loans  and  offers  of  treaties  with  foreign  nations  were 
alike  greeted  with  the  derisive  inquiry  whether  the  States 
had  authorized  them,  or  only  the  nation  by  itself. 

V.  This  demoralization,  so  conspicuous  in  public  affairs, 
did  not  fail  to  show  itself   in  the  condition  of   society. 
Following  the  example  of  Congress  and  the  state  legisla- 
tures, citizens  refused  to  pay  their  honest  debts.     Courts 
were  flooded  with  suits  of  recovery,  and  jails  were  crowded 
with  debtors  and  criminals.     The  most  signal  instance  of 
this  widespread  demoralization  was  seen  in  the  disturb- 
ances in  Massachusetts  known  as  Shays's  Rebellion,  which 
was  only  a  local  outbreak  of  the  general  disregard  of  legal 
and  social  obligations.     That  was  happily  suppressed  by 
the  Massachusetts  government ;  but  it  was  because  of  the 
alarm  awakened  that,  under  the  pretext  of  quelling  some 
disturbances  among  the  Indians,  Congress  voted  to  raise 
from  New  England  several  regiments  for  the  emergency, 


218  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

and  attention  was  again  turned  to  Washington,  now  in  his 
retirement  at  Mount  Vernon,  as  the  only  champion  of 
peace  and  order  whom  the  country  could  rely  on.  It  was 
in  reply  to  a  letter  thus  addressed  to  him  by  Arthur  Lee, 
and  asking  the  aid  of  his  influence,  that  he  wrote  the  fa- 
mous passage,  prompted  no  doubt  by  the  bitter  recollec- 
tion of  many  a  similar  request  in  other  years :  "  You  talk, 
my  good  sir,  of  employing  influence  to  appease  the  present 
tumults  in  Massachusetts.  I  know  not  where  that  influ- 
ence is  to  be  found,  or,  if  attainable,  that  it  would  be  a 
proper  remedy  for  the  disease.  Influence  is  not  govern- 
ment. Let  us  have  a  government  by  which  our  lives, 
liberties,  and  properties  will  be  secured,  or  let  us  know 
the  worst  at  once." 

But  even  in  this  prostration  of  all  public  interests  and 
this  degradation  of  public  honor,  high-minded  and  far- 
seeing  men  were  not  wanting,  though  in  the  hampered 
councils  of  the  country  they  found  no  sphere  for  states- 
manship or  for  great  achievements.  The  period,  however, 
affords  one  illustrious  exception  —  one  solitary  act  in  which 
the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  broke  loose  from  the 
trammels  of  the  state  legislatures  and  accomplished  a 
work  whose  beneficent  results  cannot  be  estimated  too 
highly.  They  will  last  as  long  as  the  republic  itself.  This 
was  the  Ordinance  for  the  government  of  the  territory 
northwest  of  the  Ohio,  —  a  territory  which  was  acquired 
by  the  United  States  through  the  patriotic  surrender  by 
several  States  of  the  lands  embraced  in  their  charters  and 
now  occupied  by  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  a  part  of  Minnesota.  Antici- 
pating the  creation  of  imperial  States  like  these,  it  dictated 
to  them  in  advance  a  perpetual  contract  of  national  unity. 
It  prohibited  slavery,  it  guaranteed  to  their  inhabitants 
civil  and  religious  freedom,  and  secured  to  them  the  essen- 
tial elements  of  a  high  civilization  and  a  magnificent  social 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION.   219 

destiny.  The  framer  of  this  renowned  Ordinance  of 
1787,  as  has  well  been  said,  is  entitled  to  a  place  among 
the  most  illustrious  lawgivers  of  the  world. 

The  Confederation  was  now  hastening  to  its  end.  It 
had  thoroughly  done  the  only  work  of  which  it  was  capa- 
ble, and  that  work  was  to  demonstrate  its  own  exceeding 
worthlessness.  The  Convention  for  framing  a  new  Con- 
stitution was  already  in  session.  In  that  Convention  was 
sitting  a  young  man  of  scarcely  thirty  years,  who,  ingenious 
for  constructive  statesmanship,  was  equalled  by  no  one  of 
his  contemporaries.  At  the  age  of  twenty  years  he  had 
been  appointed  an  aid  of  Washington,  and  at  the  head- 
quarters of  the  great  commander,  where  the  anxieties 
and  sufferings  of  the  whole  country  were  all  brought  to- 
gether, he  had  learned  the  solemn  lessons  of  the  time,  and 
had  since  sought  to  impress  them  upon  his  countrymen. 
Since  the  close  of  the  war,  his  one  endeavor  had  been  to 
secure  nationality  for  the  nation.  He  was,  I  believe,  the 
youngest  member  of  the  Convention,  but  he  was  also  the 
foremost  master  of  the  difficult  problems  it  had  to  solve. 
Older  statesmen,  more  closely  in  sympathy  with  the  popu- 
lar mind,  modified  many  of  his  opinions  and  shaped  the 
new  Constitution  to  the  necessities  of  the  time ;  but  the 
mighty  and  heroic  work  of  preparing  the  way  for  that 
instrument,  of  explaining  it  to  the  country,  and  of  secur- 
ing its  adoption,  is  to  be  very  largely  ascribed  to  Alex- 
ander Hamilton.  In  the  continually  darkening  sky  of 
the  Confederation  period,  his  luminous  genius  shone  as 
the  morning  star  of  the  brighter  era  that  was  soon  to 
dawn  on  the  distracted  and  declining  republic. 

I  have  thus  traced  here  and  there  an  outline  of  the 
period  which  was  controlled  by  the  Confederation.  In  its 
political  aspects,  it  is  the  dreariest  period  of  American 
history.  It  fully  justifies  the  words  of  Mr.  Hamilton  : 


220  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

"  A  nation  without  a  national  government  is  an  awful 
spectacle."  And,  indeed,  if  we  may  rely  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  contemporaries,  its  social  and  moral  aspects  were 
far  from  radiant  with  either  personal  or  civic  virtues. 
Washington  writes  of  it  thus :  "  From  the  high  ground 
we  stood  upon,  from  the  plain  path  which  invited  our 
footsteps,  to  be  so  fallen,  so  lost,  is  really  mortifying  ;  but 
virtue,  I  fear,  has  in  a  great  degree  taken  its  departure 
from  our  land,  and  the  want  of  a  disposition  to  do  justice 
is  the  source  of  the  national  embarrassments."  Unless 
the  army  of  the  Revolution  presented  an  exception,  this 
could  not  have  been  the  heroic  age  of  the  nation.  The 
astonishing  fact  is  that,  with  such  a  government,  national 
independence  was  ever  achieved,  and  that,  when  achieved, 
it  was  not  immediately  lost.  The  period,  however,  is  full 
of  instruction.  It  was  not  wanting  in  specimens  of  illus- 
trious character,  and  it  produced  at  least  one  that  will 
shine  forever  in  the  annals  of  mankind.  But  its  chief 
lessons  are  those  of  warning  for  later  times.  It  was  the 
period  in  which  were  developed  the  ideas  and  tendencies 
which  have  done  most  to  disturb  the  peace,  to  degrade  the 
character,  and  to  peril  the  life  of  the  republic.  The  chief- 
est  satisfaction  connected  with  it  is  that  it  was  inevitable 
at  our  national  beginning,  that  it  prepared  the  way  for 
all  that  has  followed,  and  most  of  all  that,  without  having 
the  humiliations  of  the  Confederation,  we  could  not  have 
had  the  triumphs  of  the  Constitution. 


THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  THE  EDICT  OF 

NANTES.1 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  : 

THE  twenty-second  day  of  October  just  past  was  the 
two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  revocation  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes.  It  has  been  commemorated  by  descendants  of 
the  Huguenots  in  many  different  parts  of  the  country. 
Several  of  you  have  united  in  a  request  that  I  begin  our 
winter  course  of  Historical  Papers  with  one  relating  to 
"  The  Huguenots  and  the  Edict  of  Nantes,"  and  it  is  in 
accordance  with  this  request  that  I  present  to  you  the  fol- 
lowing :  — 

The  Protestant  Reformation  in  France  had  a  compara- 
tively brief  career,  and  finally  came  to  a  disastrous  over- 
throw. While  it  lasted,  however,  it  was  associated  with 
resolute  and  unfaltering  faith,  with  heroic  courage,  and 
with  sufferings  scarcely  paralleled  in  any  other  country  or 
at  any  other  period  of  history.  Its  beginning  was  nearly 
coeval  with  its  beginning  in  Germany,  though  well-nigh 
independent  of  it,  and  it  maintained  substantially  the 
same  character  in  both  countries.  It  was  in  both  an  up- 
rising of  the  human  mind  against  the  principle  of  abso- 
lute authority  in  matters  of  religion.  In  both  it  asserted 
the  supremacy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  over  the  traditions, 
the  usages,  and  the  authority  of  the  Church.  In  neither 
country  was  it  really  the  work  of  any  single  leader.  It 
began  in  the  minds  of  thoughtful  people  before  any  lead- 

1  Read  before  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  November  3, 
1885. 


222  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

ers  appeared,  and  it  was  the  expression  of  a  prevailing 
sentiment,  of  which  leaders  were  only  the  asserters  and 
exponents.  Indeed,  they  became  leaders  only  as  they 
publicly  declared  the  ideas  and  beliefs,  the  cravings  and 
aspirations,  which  already  existed  in  multitudes  of  minds. 
The  Reformation  demanded  that  the  Scriptures  be  given 
to  the  human  race  for  whom  they  were  designed,  instead 
of  being  confined  to  the  priests  alone.  The  invention  of 
printing  had  just  made  the  Bible  an  accessible  book  to  all 
who  could  read,  and  multitudes  everywhere  were  search- 
ing for  its  hitherto  unknown  teachings  and  promises.  In 
palaces  and  in  hovels  they  read  its  sacred  pages  or  heard 
them  read,  that  they  might  learn  the  truths  which  it  con- 
tained, but  which  had  never  before  been  within  their  reach. 
In  France,  more  generally  than  in  Germany,  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Reformation  were  for  a  time  regarded  with 
great  favor  by  the  more  intelligent  classes  of  the  popu- 
lation. The  relations  of  the  Gallican  Church  and  the 
Papacy  had  been  disturbed,  and  the  popular  fear  of  the 
Vatican  had  been  diminished  in  consequence.  This  was 
especially  true  in  the  southeasterly  portions  of  the  country 
which  were  nearest  to  Switzerland,  in  whose  freer  air  these 
doctrines  were  received  with  singular  readiness.  Their 
votaries  were  called  "gospellers,"  because  they  encour- 
aged by  precept  and  by  example  the  reading  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  the  doctrines  which  they  held  and  which 
they  everywhere  taught  to  the  people  were  styled  "  the 
religion,"  as  if  they  were  a  new  gift  to  mankind.  Many 
of  its  early  ministers  were  men  of  learning,  who  had  been 
trained  at  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris,  the  most  illustrious 
school  of  mediaeval  theology.  It  also  early  numbered 
among  its  votaries  men  and  women  of  rank,  officers  of  dis- 
tinction in  the  service  of  the  country,  and  even  princes  of 
the  royal  blood.  But  its  most  efficient  propagators  for  a 
considerable  period  were  undoubtedly  to  be  found  among 


THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  223 

the  travelling  traders  of  the  age,  many  of  whom  had  now 
added  the  New  Testament  to  the  wares  in  which  they 
trafficked  alike  at  castle  and  at  cottage,  all  over  southern 
France.  They  were  the  humble  beginners  of  rural  com- 
merce and  rural  handicraft,  whom  history  seldom  men- 
tions, but  who  rendered  invaluable  services  in  the  centu- 
ries to  which  they  belonged.  Those  who  have  looked  over 
the  writings  or  the  life  of  Palissy  the  Potter  will  recall 
the  service  he  thus  rendered,  as  he  travelled  over  the 
country,  in  promoting  that  beautiful  process  of  enameling 
clay,  which  he  had  so  laboriously  invented.  Wherever  he 
went  in  the  practice  of  his  art,  with  which  he  at  length 
decorated  some  of  the  grandest  castles  and  palaces  of  the 
age,  he  bore  with  him  copies  of  the  New  Testament,  which 
he  sold  or  gave  to  all  who  would  receive  them.  He  was  a 
simple  "  gospeller,"  without  church  and  without  creed, 
—  a  man  of  extraordinary  genius  and  of  heroic  Christian 
faith,  whom  threatenings  did  not  disturb  and  persecutions 
did  not  destroy.  So  quietly  for  a  time  did  "  the  religion  " 
thus  make  progress  in  the  minds  of  the  people  that  in 
many  places  its  services  were  frequented  almost  as  largely 
as  those  of  the  ancient  faith.  Rural  churches  were  opened 
for  conducting  them  on  Sundays,  and  they  were  often  at- 
tended by  many  who  had  already  celebrated  the  mass  and 
listened  to  the  teachings  of  the  priests. 

The  city  of  Meaux  for  a  time  became  the  centre  of  this 
singular  tolerance.  Here  lived  James  Lefevre  and  Wil- 
liam Farel,  men  of  education  and  learning,  who  had  been 
among  the  earliest  preachers  of  the  new  faith.  They  had 
prepared  for  their  congregations  a  new  translation  of  the 
Evangelists,  and  when  it  was  finished  they  submitted  it  to 
the  kind-hearted  bishop  of  the  city,  who  not  only  approved 
what  they  had  done,  but  gave  them  assistance  in  publish- 
ing it.  He  also  found  many  of  his  priests  to  be  non-resi- 
dent and  without  vicars,  and  he  invited  Farel,  Lefevre, 


224  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

and  others  to  preach  in  their  vacant  pulpits,  and  himself 
assisted  in  circulating  their  Four  Gospels  among  the  poor 
of  his  diocese.  The  effects  of  this  new  agency  of  divine 
truth  were  soon  visible  in  the  improved  morals  and  better 
lives  of  the  people  of  the  city  and  its  environs.  But  a 
still  more  remarkable  promoter  of  the  new  faith  appeared 
in  the  person  of  Queen  Margaret  of  Valois,  the  sister  of 
Francis  I.,  King  of  France.  She,  while  residing  in  Paris 
at  the  court  of  her  brother,  introduced  certain  Reformed 
preachers  into  the  pulpits  of  that  city,  acting,  possibly,  on 
the  principle  that  both  sides  were  entitled  to  a  hearing. 
It  thus  seemed  for  a  time  as  though  the  new  faith  might 
have  at  least  a  fair  field  in  which  to  assert  and  maintain 
its  doctrines.  It  was  also  at  this  time  that  its  professors 
began  to  be  called  Huguenots.  They  had  not,  thus  far, 
attacked  the  institutions  of  the  Church.  Nor  had  they  de- 
nounced the  priesthood  and  the  Pope,  as  had  been  done  so 
fiercely  by  the  reformers  in  other  countries.  They  had 
simply  searched  the  Scriptures  and  proclaimed  the  great 
ideas  which  they  had  thus  discovered.  They  were,  there- 
fore, scarcely  regarded  as  reformers,  nor  did  they  desire 
to  be  so  called.  The  origin  of  the  name  of  Huguenots, 
which  they  now  began  to  bear,  has  received  not  less  than 
fifteen  different  explanations.  It  was  probably  given  to 
them  in  derision,  and  taken  from  that  of  some  obscure  or 
despised  representative  of  their  cause.  They,  however, 
seem  to  have  preferred  it  to  every  other,  and  to  have 
clung  to  it  till  all  others  were  abandoned.  The  name  soon 
became  synonymous  with  heretics,  and  they  were  placed 
beyond  the  protection  of  law  and  proscribed  as  enemies 
of  the  Church  in  every  country  in  Catholic  Christendom. 
That  they  had  been  encouraged  by  the  Bishop  of  Meaux, 
and,  still  more,  that  they  had  been  favored  by  the  sister  of 
the  king,  soon  stirred  the  wrath  of  the  ecclesiastics  and 
called  forth  the  remonstrance  of  the  Pope.  The  fickle  and 


THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  225 

timid  monarch,  dreading  the  papal  displeasure,  made 
amends  for  all  that  had  been  done,  by  a  proclamation  of 
atrocious  cruelty,  which  proved  to  be  but  the  beginning 
of  that  long  series  of  cruel  enormities  which  finally  oblit- 
erated nearly  every  vestige  of  Protestantism  from  France. 
In  January,  1535,  at  the  most  magnificent  fete  which  in 
that  age  Paris  had  ever  beheld,  Francis  I.  solemnly  pro- 
claimed his  determination  to  punish  all  heresy  with  death, 
and  not  to  spare  even  his  own  children  if  they  should  be 
guilty  of  it.  This  declaration  of  the  king  was  received 
with  the  utmost  delight  by  the  fanatical  multitude  to 
whom  it  was  addressed.  It  was  regarded  as  a  permission 
—  perhaps  as  an  invitation  —  to  begin  the  work  of  slaugh- 
tering heretics  at  that  very  time  and  on  the  spot  where  it 
was  uttered.  The  ceremonies  of  the  fete  closed  with  the 
burning  of  six  Huguenots,  suspended  from  six  beams 
made  to  revolve  in  succession  over  a  flaming  furnace,  into 
which  they  were  dropped  at  each  revolution  till  they  were 
burned  to  death.  Thus  was  planted  in  the  French  nature 
that  appetite  for  Huguenot  blood,  which  for  more  than  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years  fed  itself  on  massacres  and  butch- 
eries, on  murders  and  slaughters,  the  enormities  of  which 
no  history  has  fully  described  and  no  imagination  has 
fully  conceived. 

Thus  far  the  Huguenots,  though  they  had  become  very 
numerous,  were  without  any  recognized  leader.  In  this 
same  year  (1535),  John  Calvin  published  at  Basle,  in 
Switzerland,  his  "  Institutes  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  a 
book  which  not  only  united  the  French  Protestants  in  a 
common  faith,  but  also  wrought  their  persecuted  congre- 
gations into  an  ecclesiastical  body  of  self-governing  be- 
lievers who  acknowledged  him  as  their  patriarch  and 
chief.  A  self-denying  scholar  who,  as  a  student  at  the 
Sorbonne,  had  been  sent  away  from  Paris  because  of  his 
heresies,  he  had  studied  the  profoundest  problems  of  reli- 


226  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

gion  with  an  ability  and  a  zeal  which  no  man  has  ever 
surpassed.  With  a  mind  of  the  acutest  and  most  compre- 
hensive order,  he  embodied  in  his  Institutes  the  doctrines 
which  not  only  gave  character  and  organization  to  the 
Protestants  of  France,  but  have  ever  since  exercised  a 
controlling  influence  on  the  religious  thought  of  at  least 
half  of  Protestant  Christendom.  Seldom  in  human  his- 
tory has  the  power  of  a  single  mind  been  so  deeply  and 
so  widely  felt,  not  only  in  his  own  but  in  subsequent  ages. 
Thus  organized  as  a  religious  body,  they  took  another 
step,  and  in  1569  made  themselves  also  a  separate  polit- 
ical body,  —  a  Christian  State,  —  framed  in  accordance 
with  the  theories  of  Calvin,  though  not  with  his  special 
approval  of  the  proceeding.  Thus,  in  an  age  of  violence 
and  of  brutal  war,  they  became  a  religious  republic,  and 
sought  to  be  recognized  among  the  great  estates  of  the 
realm  which  were  subject  only  to  the  king.  The  effect  of 
this  was  that  they  came  to  be  regarded  by  aspiring  nobles 
and  ambitious  princes  as  a  power  that  might  be  concil- 
iated and  used  for  their  own  advancement.  They  soon 
began  to  be  courted  and  flattered,  their  cause  was  pro- 
fessedly and  often  sincerely  espoused,  in  order  to  induce 
them  to  become  tributary  to  political  schemes  wholly  for- 
eign to  every  interest  of  religion.  Placed  as  they  now 
were,  with  an  ecclesiastical  and  civil  organization  of  their 
own,  in  the  midst  of  the  factions  and  combinations  of  a 
tumultuous  age,  it  is  perhaps  not  surprising  that  they  were 
drawn  into  the  civil  and  political  struggles  which  were 
going  on  around  them.  They  received  assurances  of  as- 
sistance from  one  and  another  of  the  great  leaders  in  these 
struggles,  some  of  whom  had  earnestly  accepted  their  own 
religious  faith.  They  saw  no  escape  from  destruction 
save  by  some  sort  of  alliance  with  those  who  were  con- 
tending with  their  common  enemy  and  destroyer.  Their 
numbers  had  become  so  great  and  their  importance  so 


THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  227 

considerable  that  they  were  able  to  dictate  terms  of  union 
which  gave  promise  of  security  to  their  religion,  —  the 
great  end  which  they  always  kept  in  view.  It  was  thus 
that  they  allowed  themselves  to  make  alliances  with  those 
who  sought  to  become  the  controllers  and  masters  of  the 
State  :  at  one  time  with  the  Family  of  Bourbon,  at  another 
with  the  party  of  the  Politiques,  at  another  with  the 
Princes  of  Conde,  and  last  of  all  with  the  chiefs  of  the 
House  of  Navarre,  who  were  soon  to  become  the  rulers 
of  France.  But  whatever  their  motives  may  have  been, 
whatever  the  promises  of  advantage  that  were  made  to 
them,  these  alliances  were  always  a  mistake,  and  always 
disastrous  to  the  interests  of  religion.  As  religious  re- 
formers, their  sole  work  was  to  cherish  and  proclaim  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  set  them  forth  in  their  writ- 
ings, to  illustrate  them  in  their  lives,  and  to  teach  them 
everywhere  to  their  fellow-men.  It  is  thus,  and  thus  only, 
that  Christianity  in  all  ages  has  won  its  splendid  triumphs 
in  all  the  earth.  It  is  only  degraded  and  dishonored 
when  its  disciples  league  themselves  with  princes  or  accept 
the  services  of  armies  to  accomplish  religious  ends.  It 
was  this  forgetting  of  the  essential  and  unchangeable  fact 
that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  not  a  kingdom  of  this 
world,  which  more  than  any  other  cause  —  more  indeed 
than  all  other  causes  —  very  early  involved  them  in  dis- 
asters, and  finally  prepared  the  way  for  their  greatest  suf- 
ferings and  for  the  humiliating  failure  of  all  their  heroic 
endeavors  to  establish  the  Protestant  Reformation  in 
France. 

The  immediate  consequence  of  this  mingling  of  the  re- 
ligious struggles  of  the  Huguenots  with  the  politics  and 
cabals  of  the  age  was  the  outbreak  of  the  Wars  of  Reli- 
gion, as  they  are  styled,  of  which  the  narratives  fill  so  many 
repulsive  chapters  of  French  history.  They  were  really 
civil  wars  among  rival  factions,  in  which  the  Huguenots 


228  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

became  enlisted.  They  lasted  for  forty  years,  and  the  trage- 
dies which  are  connected  with  them  are  amongst  the  most 
revolting  in  which  human  beings  have  ever  been  the  actors. 
The  belligerent  Huguenots  gained  occasional  advantages, 
and  for  a  brief  season  they  expected  to  triumph.  But  in 
the  end  they  utterly  failed.  They  were  corrupted  by  bad 
associations.  They  lost  the  religious  character  which  they 
originally  possessed.  They  caught  the  worldly  spirit  of 
the  ambitious  adventurers  with  whom  they  were  allied. 
They  contended  no  longer  for  their  faith,  but  for  power  to 
rule.  They  even  followed  the  example  of  their  enemies 
and  avenged  their  sufferings  by  needless  atrocities.  In 
at  least  one  most  lamentable  instance,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  defenseless  Catholics,  of  whom  seventy-two  were 
prisoners  of  war,  were  massacred  in  cold  blood  by  one  of 
their  military  bands  at  the  city  of  Nismes.  It  is  true  that 
the  outrage  was  a  solitary  exception  to  the  general  con- 
duct of  their  campaigns,  and  was  condemned  by  their  min- 
isters and  their  military  leaders.  It  may  be,  even,  that  it 
was  perpetrated  by  ferocious  soldiers  acting  without  or- 
ders ;  but  it  was  done  in  their  name,  and  it  was  sure  to  be 
avenged  a  hundred  fold  by  their  malignant  enemies.  It 
undoubtedly  became  a  precedent  and  a  provocation  for  the 
far  more  fearful  massacres  of  1562  at  Vassy,  at  Paris,  at 
Senlis,  at  Meaux,  at  Chalons,  at  Epernay,  at  Tours,  and 
at  so  many  other  towns  inhabited  by  Huguenots.  It  was 
even  cited  in  justification  of  that  most  atrocious  of  all 
slaughters  recorded  in  modern  history,  the  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  on  the  24th  of  August,  1572,  — 
a  slaughter  perpetrated  at  the  command  of  the  royal 
authorities  of  France,  the  beginning  of  which  in  Paris 
was  witnessed  by  the  weak-minded  King  Charles  IX.,  and 
his  intriguing  mother,  Catherine  de  Medicis,  a  woman  who 
deserves  the  detestable  distinction  of  having  suggested  or 
sanctioned  all  the  Huguenot  murders  of  that  sanguinary 


THE  EDICT   OF  NANTES.  229 

period  of  violence  and  persecution.  This  queen-mother 
was  so  much  delighted  with  her  bloody  work  of  three  days 
in  Paris  that  she  immediately  dispatched  letters  to  Philip 
II.  of  Spain,  to  the  Duke  of  Alva,  and  to  Pope  Gregory 
XIII.  at  Rome.  Philip,  on  receiving  the  tidings  of  what 
had  been  done,  is  said  to  have  laughed  aloud  for  the  first 
and  only  time  in  a  life  made  morose  and  gloomy  by  a 
fanaticism  which  knew  no  joy  but  in  the  persecution  and 
destruction  of  heretics.  At  Rome  the  occasion  was  one 
of  extraordinary  jubilation.  A  Pontifical  salute  was  fired 
at  the  Castle  of  San  Angelo.  Gregory  XIII.  and  the 
College  of  Cardinals  went  in  procession  from  one  church  to 
another  "  to  render  thanksgivings  (such  is  the  ancient  rec- 
ord) to  God,  the  infinitely  great  and  good,  for  the  mercy 
which  He  had  vouchsafed  to  the  See  of  Rome  and  to  the 
whole  Christian  world."  A  painting  of  the  massacre  was 
ordered  for  the  Vatican  gallery,  and  a  medal  of  gold  was 
struck,  with  the  head  of  the  Pope  on  one  side,  and  on  the 
other  the  Destroying  Angel  exterminating  the  Huguenots, 
with  the  inscription  Hugonotorum  Strages.  In  Paris 
the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  celebrated  the  massacre  with 
public  processions,  and  established  an  annual  jubilee  to 
commemorate  it.  They  also  had  a  medal  prepared  in 
honor  of  the  event,  bearing  the  legend  "  Piety  has  Awak- 
ened Justice."  The  feeble-minded  king,  by  whose  author- 
ity these  dreadful  deeds  of  blood  had  been  perpetrated, 
soon  afterwards  lay  upon  his  death-bed,  —  his  intellect 
well-nigh  extinct,  and  his  wild  fancy  peopling  every  scene 
with  the  victims  of  the  massacre,  as  he  wasted  away  under 
the  power  of  a  slow  poison,  believed  at  the  time  to  have 
been  administered  by  his  mother. 

I  have  thus  given  a  hasty  outline  of  the  bitter  expe- 
riences of  the  Huguenots  under  the  last  five  kings  of  the 
House  of  Valois,  through  a  period  of  fifty  years.  The 
reign  of  each,  happily  for  his  subjects,  had  been  brief,  for, 


230  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

as  has  been  truly  said,  "  bloody  and  deceitful  men  shall 
not  live  out  half  their  days."  The  name  of  Huguenot 
had  become  more  odious  than  ever,  and  the  policy  of  the 
government  had  now  left  them  without  protection  to  the 
fanatical  hatred  of  their  proud  and  vengeful  enemies.  In 
this  condition  of  affairs,  after  the  brief  and  uneventful 
reign  of  Henry  III.,  the  throne  descended  to  his  successor, 
Henry  IV.,  son  of  Anthony  of  Navarre.  His  mother  was 
Jane  D'Albret,  a  Protestant  alike  by  birth  and  by  choice, 
and  a  champion  of  the  Protestant  faith.  Henry  had  been 
excommunicated  for  heresy  by  Pope  Sixtus  V.,  and  his 
right  to  the  throne  had  been  annulled.  On  this  account 
he  was  compelled  to  contend  in  arms  for  its  possession, 
and  at  length  to  make  his  submission  to  the  Papal  Church. 
In  consequence  of  these  hindrances,  he  was  not  crowned 
till  1594,  nearly  six  years  after  the  death  of  his  predeces- 
sor. His  character  has  received  an  estimate  higher  than 
it  intrinsically  deserves,  because  it  is  compared  with  those 
of  his  predecessors  and  those  of  his  immediate  successors. 
His  great  merit  is  that  in  a  critical  period  he  dared  to  act 
as  the  head  of  the  nation,  and  to  take  measures  to  secure 
its  unity  and  peace. 

France  had  become  so  distracted  and  wretched  that  it 
was  constantly  exposed  alike  to  internal  decay  and  to  for- 
eign subjugation  and  dismemberment.  It  is  the  merit 
and  the  glory  of  Henry  IV.  —  a  merit  and  glory,  how- 
ever, tarnished  by  many  a  vice  and  many  a  folly  —  that 
he  made  one  heroic  endeavor  to  put  an  end  to  the  merci- 
less persecutions  which  now  for  fifty  years  the  Protestants 
had  been  compelled  to  endure  from  their  Catholic  fellow- 
subjects.  So  soon  as  his  seat  on  the  throne  had  been 
fully  secured,  he  called  before  him,  on  separate  occasions, 
the  representatives  of  both,  and  after  a  patient  consulta- 
tion with  each,  he  caused  to  be  prepared  and  promulgated 
the  Edict  of  Nantes,  —  an  edict  which  has  usually  been 


THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  231 

styled  the  Charter  of  French  Protestantism,  and  which 
certainly  is  a  noble  and  generous  attempt  to  secure  a  ces- 
sation of  the  bloody  religious  strife  that  had  blighted  the 
happiness  and  well-nigh  destroyed  the  prosperity  of  France. 
The  Edict  bears  the  date  of  April,  1598.  It  contains  the 
substance  of  several  other  edicts  relating  to  the  Hugue- 
nots which  had  been  issued  in  former  reigns,  and  is  ex- 
panded through  ninety-two  articles.  It  is  supplemented 
by  three  additional  documents,  of  which  two  are  entitled 
secret  articles,  and  the  remaining  one  is  styled  Brevet ; 
the  secret  articles  qualifying  and  in  some  instances  en- 
larging the  provisions  of  the  Edict  itself.  They  together, 
in  the  only  form  in  which  I  have  seen  them,  fill  some  forty 
closely  printed  crown  octavo  pages,  and  are  certainly  very 
dull  reading.  Their  prevailing  tone  is  very  kindly,  and 
shows  the  utmost  desire  on  the  part  of  the  king  to  eradi- 
cate and  destroy  the  religious  animosities  which  had  so 
long  disturbed  the  peace  and  order  of  his  kingdom.  In 
this  respect  it  is  undoubtedly  intended  to  be  equivalent  to 
an  act  of  indemnity  and  oblivion,  and  for  this  purpose  it 
provides  several  items  of  pecuniary  compensation  to  be 
paid  from  the  royal  treasury.  It  is  only  when  we  exam- 
ine it  as  a  charter  of  liberties  for  the  future  that  its  inad- 
equacies present  themselves,  though  even  thus  considered 
it  may  be  all  that  ought  to  be  expected  from  an  age  and 
a  country  in  which  constitutional  liberty  was  wholly  un- 
known. It  was  undoubtedly  intended  that  the  people  of 
France  should  have  the  right  to  choose  between  the  two 
religions,  but  this  right  is  hampered  by  so  many  restric- 
tions and  reservations  that  it  could  never  be  freely  ex- 
ercised. 

The  Edict  recognizes  two  distinct  classes  into  which  the 
subjects  of  the  king  are  divided  :  first,  those  who  pro- 
fess "  the  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Roman  religion  ; "  and, 
second,  those  who  profess  "  the  Pretended  Reformed  re- 


232  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 


The  former  of  these  religions  ft  declares  to  be 

C7 

the  established  religion  of  the  country,  and  wherever  it 
has  been  overthrown  or  abandoned  it  is  to  be  reestablished 
in  full  possession  of  all  its  former  rights.  The  latter,  or 
the  Pretended  Reformed  religion,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
placed  on  an  entirely  different  foundation.  Those  who 
profess  and  cherish  it  are  admitted  to  certain  privileges 
rather  than  rights,  and  these  privileges  are  conceded  to 
them,  not  from  any  principle  of  justice,  but  wholly  from 
considerations  of  expediency,  and  because  of  the  trouble 
they  have  occasioned  and  may  occasion  again.  Through 
all  its  concessions  it  presents  the  votaries  of  the  "  Pre- 
tended Reformed  religion,"  not  only  as  an  inferior  part 
of  the  population,  but  as  persons  having  no  claims  what- 
ever to  the  privileges  which  it  confers.  It  was  thus  inci- 
dentally fitted  to  inspire,  in  full  measure  among  the  more 
favored  class,  that  haughty  contempt,  that  disdainful  in- 
tolerance, which  a  national  church,  supported  by  law  and 
protected  by  government,  always  cherishes  for  those  whom 
it  scornfully  styles  dissenters  and  schismatics  and  here- 
tics. It  allowed  them  simply  to  exist,  but  only  by  suffer- 
ance. Though  the  Protestant  Reformation  in  France. 
even  after  sixty  years  of  almost  ceaseless  persecution,  now 
numbered  as  its  adherents  scarcely  less  than  a  million  of 
Frenchmen,  among  whom  were  princes  of  the  royal  blood, 
noblemen  of  illustrious  lineage,  officers  of  distinction  in 
the  army  and  navy  of  the  king,  and  a  most  respectable, 
industrious,  and  thrifty  portion  of  the  population,  yet  the 
tone  of  the  Edict  is  one  of  condescension  and  of  reluctant 
interposition  in  behalf  of  an  inferior  class,  who  had  been 
deluded  with  troublesome  doctrines  and  were  practicing 
strange  rites  of  religion,  rather  to  be  indulged  and  borne 
with  than  to  be  approved  or  respected. 

If  we  pass  from  its  general  tone  to  its  special  provi- 
sions, we  find  that  it  permits  every  person  to  select  the 


THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  233 

Reformed  religion  without  hindrance  or  restriction  of  any 
kind,  but  he  can  make  no  public  exercise  of  it  save  in  cer- 
tain districts  and  places  which  are  specially  named.  These 
places  and  districts  are  those  in  which  it  already  exists. 
From  all  other  places  its  public  exercises  are  expressly 
excluded,  and  among  these  are  comprised  the  city  of  Paris 
and  the  country  around  it  to  the  extent  of  five  leagues,  in 
which  their  worship  could  not  be  held.  The  professors  of 
the  Pretended  Reformed  religion  are  made  eligible  to  all 
public  offices  and  employments,  and  also  to  all  schools  and 
colleges,  and  all  hospitals  and  charitable  institutions. 
They  may  reside  in  any  part  of  the  kingdom,  but  they 
may  hold  their  worship  or  any  public  exercises  of  their 
religion  apart,  or  keep  for  sale  books  relating  to  it,  only 
in  the  specified  places.  It  is  obvious  from  restrictions 
such  as  these,  especially  in  an  age  when  intercourse  was 
difficult  and  exceedingly  limited,  that  the  reformers  could 
look  forward  to  no  organized  growth  and  to  no  prolonged 
future  for  their  religious  faith.  They  could  cherish  it  in 
their  own  hearts  provided  they  kept  it  to  themselves. 
They  could  not  commune  with  each  other  in  any  religious 
exercise,  still  less  could  they  explain  their  doctrines  to 
others  anywhere  but  in  the  districts  and  towns  specified 
in  the  Edict ;  and  wherever  they  might  be,  they  were  re- 
quired to  "  observe  the  festivals  in  use  in  the  Church, 
Catholic,  Roman,  and  Apostolic,  and  on  such  days  not  to 
sell  or  to  expose  for  sale  in  shops,  or  to  engage  openly  in 
any  work."  Numerous  sections  of  the  Edict  relate  to  the 
manner  in  which  justice  shall  be  administered  in  all  civil 
suits  and  processes  which  affected  them,  and  in  this  con- 
nection special  officers  were  appointed  to  act  in  their  be- 
half in  several  of  the  high  courts  of  the  realm.  As  I 
have  already  mentioned,  the  Huguenots  had  organized 
themselves  into  a  sort  of  Christian  State,  —  a  political 
body  without  reference  to  territory,  —  which  had,  in  some 


234  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

respects,  been  recognized  by  the  government.  This  rec- 
ognition was  ratified  in  the  Edict,  and  several  fortresses 
in  the  districts  assigned  to  them  were  placed  under  their 
control  to  give  military  importance  and  strength  to  their 
State. 

No  sooner  was  the  Edict  of  Nantes  promulgated  than 
it  was  denounced  in  almost  equal  measure  by  both  Cath- 
olics and  Huguenots.  The  former  regarded  it  as  a  boon 
too  great  to  be  given  to  heretics ;  the  latter  as  a  conces- 
sion too  small  for  them  to  receive.  The  former  declared 
it  to  be  a  proof  of  the  insincerity  of  Henry's  conformity 
to  the  Church  ;  the  latter  styled  it  the  treacherous  work 
of  a  renegade  Protestant,  who  had  abandoned  the  faith 
of  his  ancestors  that  he  might  receive  the  crown  and  sit 
upon  the  throne.  Henry  himself  clearly  thought  it  to  be 
all  that  could  be  done  with  any  advantage  to  either.  His 
great  aspiration  was  not  so  much  to  benefit  either  reli- 
gious party  as  to  bring  peace  and  order  to  his  distracted 
kingdom.  It  was  in  reality  a  great  and  beneficent  act  of 
royal  authority,  —  an  act  whose  true  significance  reached 
far  beyond  the  subject  to  which  it  related,  and  which  pro- 
claimed that  a  new  mode  of  government  had  begun  in 
France.  It  was  an  assertion  of  prerogative  on  the  part 
of  the  monarch  which  gave  notice  to  feudal  lords  and  local 
authorities  of  every  degree  that  their  importance  was 
henceforth  to  be  merged  in  the  sovereign  importance  of 
the  king  himself.  Henry  was  the  first  of  the  Bourbon 
race  of  kings,  a  race  that  created  a  new  era  in  France 
only  to  show  how  incompetent  they  were  to  guide  its  spirit 
or  to  meet  its  necessities.  The  absolute  monarchy  which 
Henry  founded  made  France  a  nation,  but  it  also,  in  the 
hands  of  his  successors,  brought  on  the  Revolution  which, 
for  the  time,  destroyed  both  nation  and  monarchy. 

But  the  Edict  was  yet  to  be  sanctioned  by  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris,  and  by  the  other  local  Parliaments  which 


THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  235 

in  those  times  performed  the  functions  of  legislative  as- 
semblies, with  something  like  the  conceited  independence 
and  provincial  narrowness  which  were  so  frequently  dis- 
played by  our  own  state  legislatures  in  the  days  of  the 
old  Confederation  and  the  Continental  Congress.  It  was 
in  these  bodies  that  the  Edict  of  Nantes  assumed  its  true 
political  and  historical  significance.  With  them  it  was 
not  merely  a  recognition  of  the  Huguenot  churches  and 
their  religion,  but  it  was  an  act  vastly  more  vital  in  its 
bearings.  It  entered  into  the  very  springs  and  sources 
of  public  authority,  into  the  political  life  of  the  nation. 
It  was  an  act  such  as  that  which  our  English  ancestors 
in  the  days  of  Cromwell,  fifty  years  later,  used  to  style 
a  Root  and  Branch  measure.  A  new  age  had  coine,  and 
but  few  were  aware  of  its  advent,  and  fewer  still  knew 
what  kind  of  an  age  it  was  to  be.  Henry  comprehended 
the  exigency  of  public  affairs  and  determined  to  meet  it. 
He  commanded  the  Parliaments  to  sanction  the  Edict, 
and  they  obeyed.  In  spite  of  his  Huguenot  training  he 
was  far  from  being  a  saint.  He  was  licentious  in  his  life, 
and  to  a  large  extent  a  votary  of  expediency  in  his  morals. 
But  he  was  kindly  in  his  spirit,  and  more  just  than  his 
predecessors  in  his  acts.  He  found  the  country  ruined 
by  rival  factions  and  religious  wars.  Civil  society  was 
falling  to  pieces  amidst  the  universal  prevalence  of  jea- 
lousies and  hatreds,  of  intrigues  and  cabals.  Life  was 
without  security  and  had  but  little  value.  The  single  ex- 
planation of  this  social  disorganization  and  decay  was  to 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  there  existed  no  government 
strong  enough  to  become  a  guarantee  of  order  and  security ; 
no  single  force  paramount  over  all  other  forces,  that  could 
limit  their  action  and  control  the  manner  of  their  opera- 
tion. The  Edict  of  Henry  IV.  was  thus  the  first  great 
exercise  of  royal  authority  in  France.  Had  he  lived  to 
carry  it  into  full  operation  and  complete  development,  its 
revocation  might  have  become  impossible. 


236  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

Henry  IV.,  like  his  predecessor,  fell  by  the  hand  of  an 
assassin  in  one  of  the  streets  of  Paris,  in  1610,  after  a 
prosperous  reign  of  sixteen  years.  The  Huguenots  now 
discovered  how  great  a  friend  he  had  been  to  their  cause. 
The  provisions  of  the  Edict  soon  began  to  receive  new 
constructions.  New  annoyances  were  contrived  for  their 
humiliation  and  new  restrictions  were  placed  on  their  wor- 
ship. Under  the  bad  influences  which  still  controlled 
them,  they  at  length  rose  in  armed  insurrections,  and  in 
1629,  after  they  had  been  subdued  with  needless  cruelty 
by  the  soldiers  of  Louis  XIII.,  they  were  pardoned  and 
restored  to  their  religious  rights,  but  deprived  of  their 
political  organization  and  their  military  fortresses,  and 
made  simple  subjects  of  the  king.  This  was  what  Henry 
IV.  himself  had  foreseen  would  be  necessary,  and  it  proved 
to  be  the  greatest  boon  they  had  ever  received  from  the 
government.  They  were  now  deserted  by  the  great  nobles 
and  military  leaders  who  had  acted  with  them.  They 
gave  up  the  engrossing  business  of  governing  themselves, 
and  devoted  their  energies  to  agricultural  industry,  to 
commerce,  and  to  the  useful  arts  with  a  success  which  had 
never  before  been  witnessed  in  France.  Even  in  their 
worst  days  they  had  not  ceased  to  read  the  Bible,  to  listen 
to  sermons  and  prayers,  and  to  sing  their  hymns  of  devo- 
tion and  thanksgiving.  They  had  thus  kept  alive  the 
essential  rudiments  of  religious  life,  which  neither  war  nor 
worldliness  had  wholly  destroyed.  Their  industry  and 
prosperity  soon  became  characteristic  features  of  the  re- 
gions which  they  inhabited.  Indifferent  to  the  holidays 
of  the  Church,  their  labor  was  remitted  only  on  Sundays 
and  on  some  occasional  festival  of  thanksgiving  or  some 
chosen  day  for  fasting  and  prayer.  Their  industrial  year 
was  thus  nearly  one  third  longer  than  that  of  their  Cath- 
olic neighbors.  In  addition  to  this  they  conducted  their 
work  with  a  self -directing  intelligence  which  never  fails 


THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  237 

to  insure  the  highest  industrial  success.  Hence  it  came 
to  be  remarked  that  wherever  the  harvests  were  most 
abundant,  wherever  the  vineyards  yielded  the  most  de- 
licious grapes  and  the  finest  wines,  wherever  the  silk  and 
the  woolen  manufacturers  were  the  most  prosperous,  wher- 
ever in  the  ports,  either  of  the  Mediterranean  or  the  Brit- 
ish Channel,  the  largest  ships  bore  away  the  richest  car- 
goes and  brought  back  the  most  ample  returns,  there  the 
Huguenots  were  to  be  found  in  the  greatest  numbers.  So 
much  better  is  quiet  industry  than  war  or  than  politics  as 
an  occupation  of  life.  So  much  more  beautiful  and  at- 
tractive, so  much  more  effective  over  all  human  hearts,  is 
the  example  of  Christian  faith  when  ruling  in  the  daily 
lives  of  its  disciples  than  it  ever  can  be  when  courting  the 
alliance  of  rank  and  power,  or  soliciting  the  favor  of 
princes  and  monarchs.  These  were  the  best  years  of  the 
Huguenots,  —  years  in  which  they  engaged  in  no  wars 
and  no  cabals,  in  which  they  asked  for  nothing  from  the 
government  but  to  be  let  alone.  Louis  XIII.,  in  dissolv- 
ing their  political  organization,  became  incidentally  their 
greatest  benefactor. 

Louis  XIV.  came  to  the  throne  in  1642,  at  the  age  of 
five  years,  and  his  reign  lasted  till  his  death,  in  1715,  a 
period  of  seventy-three  years.  When  he  was  at  the  age 
of  fourteen,  he  declared  himself  qualified  to  reign,  and  on 
the  death  of  Cardinal  Mazarin,  in  1661,  he  became  his 
own  prime  minister,  and  assumed  the  entire  management 
of  the  government.  He  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  ad- 
ministrative abilities  and  of  singular  power  of  controlling 
other  men.  That  centralization  of  power  which  Henry 
IV.  had  begun  he  carried  to  the  fullest  completion.  He 
made  the  government  of  France  not  only  an  absolute  mon- 
archy, but  an  Oriental  despotism,  in  which  the  word  of  the 
king  was  the  law.  His  leading  idea  was  that  the  country 
and  its  people  of  every  degree,  with  all  that  they  pos- 


238  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

sessed,  were  his  property,  to  be  used  at  his  discretion.  / 
am  the  State  was  the  maxim  that  controlled  his  reign. 
He  made  war  on  the  grandest  scale.  He  lavished  the 
wealth  of  his  subjects  on  the  adornment  of  his  capital,  on 
palaces,  churches,  fortresses,  on  libraries  and  museums. 
He  gathered  around  him  scholars  and  men  of  genius, 
great  statesmen  and  great  soldiers,  and  made  his  reign 
the  most  brilliant  in  the  history  of  France.  It  was  for- 
tunate that  for  a  considerable  period  he  gave  little  atten- 
tion to  the  religion  of  his  subjects.  His  spiritual  advisers, 
writes  the  historian  Sismondi,  limited  their  counsels  to 
two  essential  precepts :  1.  Abstain  from  incontinence ; 
2.  Exterminate  heretics  ;  and  it  has  been  said  of  him 
that  "  if  he  fell  short  in  the  first  of  these  duties,  he  cer- 
tainly wrought  works  of  supererogation  in  the  second." 
The  extraordinary  zeal  and  the  still  more  extraordinary 
cruelty  of  Louis  XIV.  in  the  destruction  of  Huguenots 
had  their  origin  in  part,  at  least,  in  his  imperial  passion 
for  unity  of  every  kind  in  his  kingdom.  With  him  non- 
conformity in  religion  was  rebellion,  and  he  treated  it  as 
such.  Whatever  spirit  of  fanaticism  he  had  was  breathed 
into  him,  in  a  large  degree,  by  Madame  de  Maintenon, 
a  woman  of  disreputable  celebrity,  strangely  enough  of 
Protestant  descent  and  training,  who  was  first  the  teacher 
of  his  children,  and  afterwards  his  wife.  She  controlled 
what  was  called  his  conscience.  She  claimed  and  perhaps 
deserved  the  distinction  of  converting  the  khig,  by  which 
she  meant  that  she  made  him  the  foremost  of  religious 
persecutors  in  modern  times.  He  did  not  massacre  the 
Huguenots,  as  his  predecessors  had  done.  He  adopted  a 
different  mode  of  proceeding.  He  began  with  a  proposal, 
in  full  accordance  with  his  magnificent  ideas,  to  purchase 
the  conversion  of  the  entire  body  of  the  Huguenots  at  an 
average  price  of  five  livres  a  head,  and  for  this  purpose 
he  set  apart  one  third  of  the  entire  revenue  of  all  the 


THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  239 

vacant  benefices  of  the  kingdom,  as  a  special  fund,  which 
was  styled  the  Bank  of  Conversion,  and  was  administered 
by  agents,  called  Converters.  Multitudes  of  the  baser 
sort  took  the  money,  but  when  the  lists  were  published  it 
was  observed  that  they  were  not  Huguenots,  but  persons 
—  not  scarce  in  any  country  or  in  any  age  —  always  ready 
to  be  bought  or  sold,  and  that  very  many  of  them  had 
been  paid  for  several  conversions. 

Enraged  at  his  failure,  he  soon  devised  new  methods  of 
securing  Catholic  unity  among  his  subjects.  He  ordered 
that  all  sorts  of  people  should  conform  in  outward  ob- 
servances to  the  Established  Church.  To  promote  this 
end,  he  suppressed  the  synods  of  the  Huguenots  ;  he  for- 
bade them  to  be  employed  in  the  charge  of  estates  and  in 
all  kindred  positions.  He  forbade  Catholics  and  Protes- 
tants to  intermarry,  and  the  children  of  such  marriages  he 
declared  illegitimate.  None  but  Catholics  could  be  em- 
ployed in  any  domestic  service.  Catholics  becoming  Prot- 
estants were  visited  with  the  severest  penalties,  while 
Protestants  becoming  Catholics  received  special  privileges, 
one  of  which  was  the  extension  of  their  debts  for  five 
years.  All  public  positions  of  every  kind,  the  practice  of 
all  professions,  and  admission  to  all  schools  were  denied 
to  Protestants.  Children  of  seven  years  might  be  brought 
to  Catholic  baptism  without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of 
their  parents,  and,  once  in  the  Church,  they  could  not 
leave  it.  Multitudes  of  parents,  in  agony  and  despair, 
sent  their  children  to  England,  to  Holland,  and  to  Den- 
mark to  be  cared  for.  Huguenot  families,  also,  in  great 
numbers,  began  to  seek  homes  in  foreign  countries.  This, 
however,  was  immediately  forbidden  under  the  penalty 
of  being  sent  to  the  galleys,  but  their  ministers  were  en- 
couraged to  depart,  and  not  suffered  to  return.  These 
are  but  specimens  of  the  harassing  despotism  which  was 
brought  to  bear  upon  them,  in  total  disregard  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes. 


240  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

In  1681  the  quartering  of  soldiers  on  Huguenot  fam- 
ilies was  first  resorted  to  for  "  missionary  purposes,*'  as 
it  was  styled.  This  practice  had  not  been  unknown  in 
France  in  times  of  war  or  national  necessity.  Now,  in 
the  province  of  Poitou,  they  were  compelled  to  receive 
these  dreadful  guests,  and  feed  and  lodge  them,  often  to 
the  number  of  a  hundred  in  each  house,  if  their  estates 
were  large.  But  beyond  the  insufferable  annoyances  and 
outrages  it  involved,  this  first  attempt  at  military  conver- 
sion was  not  regarded  as  a  success.  Three  years  later, 
however,  in  1684,  it  was  renewed  on  a  far  broader  and 
more  terrific  scale  in  nearly  all  the  Huguenot  provinces. 
For  this  purpose  dragoons  were  selected  as  the  most  avail- 
able, and  likely  to  be  the  most  effectual,  instruments  in  the 
work.  The  enterprise  thus  received  the  name  of  dragon- 
nade,  a  new  word  then  added  to  the  French  language. 
Chosen  squadrons  of  these  terrible  troopers  lighted  like 
filthy  birds  of  prey  on  the  homes  of  the  Huguenots  alike 
in  cities  and  provinces,  wherever  they  were  found.  They 
carried  with  them  the  whole  machinery  of  agony  and  de- 
spair, —  insult,  outrage,  degradation,  the  destruction  of 
estates,  the  wanton  violation  of  every  sanctity,  the  inhu- 
man practice  of  every  atrocity,  save  murder  alone.  It  was 
probably  the  most  appalling  form  of  wholesale  persecution 
ever  visited  upon  a  civilized  people.  Human  nature  broke 
down  beneath  the  infliction.  Despair,  insanity,  and  sui- 
cide marked  its  progress.  City  after  city,  province  after 
province,  professed  their  submission  to  the  Church  on  the 
approach  of  the  dreadful  dragonnade.  Nismes  was  con- 
verted, as  was  said,  in  twenty-four  hours.  Swift  couriers 
bore  daily  reports  of  the  universal  surrender,  till  the  king 
and  his  courtiers  were  made  to  believe  that  there  were  no 
longer  any  heretics  in  France.  He  had  often  professed 
his  unwillingness  to  annul  the  Edict  which  had  been  pro- 
claimed by  his  grandfather,  though  he  had  repeatedly  vio- 


THE  EDICT   OF  NANTES.  241 

lated  every  one  of  its  provisions.  But  now,  said  he,  it 
is  no  longer  needed,  for  the  Huguenots  have  all  become 
Catholics.  Deceived  by  false  reports,  flattered  by  cour- 
tiers and  priests,  elated  by  what  he  deemed  the  greatest 
of  triumphs,  he  signed,  on  the  22d  of  October,  1685,  the 
Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  which  had  been  pro- 
claimed by  Henry  IV.  eighty-seven  years  before.  This 
act  removed  every  semblance  of  protection  that  remained, 
and  let  loose  upon  them  the  wildest  fury  of  their  enemies. 
The  revocation  was  applauded  in  the  splendid  eloquence 
of  Massillon  and  Bossuet,  the  most  illustrious  preachers 
of  the  age,  but  it  gave  a  shock  to  the  French  people.  It 
was  the  first  break  in  the  spell  which  had  enthralled  the 
nation.  It  occasioned  the  loss  of  at  least  three  hundred 
thousand  of  the  bravest,  the  most  industrious,  and  the 
most  intelligent  of  the  population  of  the  country,  —  a  loss 
which  well-nigh  destroyed  several  of  the  great  industries 
in  which  it  most  excelled.  Their  emigration  was  prohib- 
ited, and  the  coast  was  constantly  watched ;  but  amidst 
dangers,  privations,  and  sufferings  which  no  pen  has  fully 
described,  they  fled  to  England,  to  Germany,  to  Holland, 
and  to  the  colonies  in  America,  bearing  with  them  not 
only  immense  wealth,  but  industrial  skill,  commercial  en- 
terprise, and  high  character,  which  enriched  and  adorned 
the  countries  that  received  them. 

But  I  cannot  linger  on  the  scenes  connected  with  this 
stupendous  expatriation  and  exile.  As  they  are  portrayed 
in  history  they  are  the  perpetual  shame  of  our  common 
humanity,  the  foulest  reproach  that  has  ever  rested  upon 
Christian  civilization.  We  are  not,  however,  to  imagine 
that  the  spirit  which  produced  them  is  confined  to  a  sin- 
gle church  or  to  a  single  type  of  Christianity.  Religious 
intolerance  belongs  to  human  nature,  and  manifests  itself 
in  a  vast  variety  of  ways.  Its  most  common  device  has 
been  to  seize  upon  the  fatal  assumption  that  the  State  is 


242  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

bound  to  prescribe  or  support  the  religion  of  its  people. 
When  Louis  XIV.  exterminated  the  Huguenots  and  put 
an  end  to  the  Protestant  Reformation  in  France,  this  as- 
sumption was  well-nigh  universal  among  Christian  nations. 
It  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  religious  persecution 
or  religious  restriction,  in  one  form  or  another,  was  at 
least  possible,  if  it  was  not  practiced,  in  nearly  every  State 
in  Christendom.  It  had  been  made  impossible  in  Rhode 
Island  alone  by  the  very  terms  of  the  social  organization. 
Here,  and  here  alone,  the  body  politic  had  no  power  to 
prescribe,  or  control,  or  in  any  way  to  affect  the  religion 
of  its  members.  It  was  an  idea  far  in  advance  of  the  age, 
and  was  everywhere  derided  and  disparaged.  But  how 
splendid  are  the  triumphs  it  has  won,  —  how  manifold  are 
the  blessings  it  has  brought  both  to  religion  and  to  the 
State  !  It  has  made  persecutors  like  Catherine  de  Medicis 
and  Louis  XIV.  no  longer  possible  in  civilized  nations. 
It  has  brought  together  warring  churches  in  the  bonds  of 
a  common  faith,  and  animated  them  with  new  zeal  in  pro- 
claiming the  gospel  to  all  mankind.  It  has  emancipated 
Christianity  from  a  debasing  bondage  and  restored  it  to 
its  original  freedom.  It  has  compelled  the  State  to  be- 
come the  eqiial  protector  of  every  creed  however  despised, 
of  every  worship  however  humble.  Thus  it  is  that  the 
seed  planted  here  by  our  exiled  founders  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago  has  become  a  mighty  tree,  "  and  the  leaves 
of  the  tree  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations." 


THE  EPOCHS  OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.1 

THE  first  hundred  years  of  American  history  are  about 
to  close.  They  have  witnessed  a  national  growth  and 
a  development  of  civilization  different  in  many  respects 
from  any  other  hitherto  known  among  mankind.  Both 
the  nation  and  the  civilization  which  it  embosoms  have 
encountered  perils  and  have  been  engaged  in  struggles 
which  have  tested  their  temper  and  their  endurance,  and 
now,  at  the  end  of  a  hundred  years,  these  perils  and  strug- 
gles may  be  deemed  not  unworthy  of  such  brief  review  as 
the  hour  may  admit. 

The  elements  of  American  society,  and  of  the  civiliza- 
tion which  it  has  created,  were  wholly  of  transatlantic 
origin.  Unlike  those  which  were  brought  from  Europe 
to  other  portions  of  the  continent,  they  have  remained 
uncontaminated  by  any  admixture  borrowed  from  the  ab- 
original races.  They  were  also  mainly  English,  includ- 
ing in  that  designation  both  Scotch  and  Irish.  It  is  true 
there  were  settlements  made  here  from  other  countries. 
The  Dutch  were  the  original  occupants  of  New  York ;  the 
Swedes  mingled  largely  in  the  settlements  of  New  Jer- 
sey and  Delaware,  the  Germans  in  that  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  the  French  Huguenots  in  that  of  South  Carolina. 
But  these  soon  became  absorbed  by  the  English,  and  as 
all  the  colonies  became  possessions  of  England,  so  they 
all  took  on  an  English  character,  spoke  the  English  lan- 
guage, and  came  to  be  controlled  by  English  ideas.  This 
was  most  slowly  accomplished  in  New  York  and  Penn- 
1  Read  before  the  Friday  Evening  Club,  December  31,  1875. 


244  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

sylvania,  in  the  former  of  which  States,  more  especially, 
another  race  had  long  a  foothold,  and  many  of  their  fami- 
lies exerted  an  important  influence  not  only  upon  social 
manners  and  modes  of  thought,  but  also  upon  political 
events. 

It  is  not  true,  however,  that  all  the  elements  of  the 
English  social  system  were  ever  represented  in  the  col- 
onies. 1.  There  were  here  no  branch  of  the  royal  family 
and  no  families  of  the  feudal  nobility  of  England.  The 
nearest  approach  to  the  former  was  the  brief  possession 
of  New  York  by  the  Duke  of  York,  afterwards  James  II., 
and  the  only  real  feudalism  we  ever  had  was  to  be  found 
among  the  Dutch  Patroons  of  the  same  State.  2.  There 
never  existed  here  any  uniform  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ment. Religion  was  provided  for  by  law  in  all  the  colo- 
nies except  Rhode  Island,  but  it  was  in  several  different 
forms  of  ecclesiastical  organization.  At  the  period  of 
the  Revolution,  when  our  survey  begins,  there  was  every- 
where a  substantial  religious  freedom.  3.  While  social 
distinctions  were  still  marked  in  a  manner  somewhat 
rigid,  yet  the  political  ideas  which  ruled  in  all  the  col- 
onies were  essentially  democratic,  and  the  theory  of  the 
social  organization  rested  upon  the  equality  of  its  mem- 
bers. 4.  In  addition  to  this  we  must  not  omit  to  men- 
tion that  negro  slavery  still  existed  in  every  colony,  but 
flourished  most  especially  in  those  south  of  Delaware  Bay. 
To  the  north  of  this  point,  on  the  coast,  it  had  proved 
unprofitable,  and  had  also  become  the  subject  of  moral 
reprobation  among  considerable  classes  of  the  population, 
especially  in  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania. 

The  civil  and  social  elements  which  had  been  intro- 
duced by  the  settlers  had  also  undergone  some  important 
modifications  during  the  colonial  period  by  the  operation 
of  the  new  forces  which  were  brought  to  bear  upon  them. 
They  had  been  planted  in  the  wilderness,  in  a  climate 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.    245 

different  from  that  of  England,  and  amidst  scenes  and  in- 
fluences of  nature  which  necessitated  a  ceaseless  struggle 
for  existence,  in  which  only  what  was  hardy  and  endur- 
ing could  by  any  possibility  survive.  There  were  thus 
created  both  a  sentiment  and  a  condition  of  social  equal- 
ity. Few  of  the  colonists  belonged  to  the  higher  classes 
of  English  life,  few  were  men  of  wealth,  and  these  were 
scattered  among  colonies  which  were  wholly  distinct  from 
each  other,  which  indeed  had  scarcely  anything  in  com- 
mon save  their  English  origin  and  their  dependence  on 
the  mother  country.  All  public  interests  were  thus  exclu- 
sively provincial.  Their  settlements  skirted  the  Atlantic 
coast  from  New  Hampshire  to  Georgia,  and  extended  but 
little  way  into  the  interior.  They  were  connected  by  no 
political  and  few  social  ties ;  their  inhabitants,  even  in 
New  England,  were  strangers  to  each  other,  and  the  pol- 
icy of  England  was  to  prevent  as  far  as  possible  any 
intercourse  in  the  way  of  trade. 

A  civilization  thus  transplanted  and  isolated  from  its 
parent  stock  by  an  intervening  ocean  must  of  necessity 
deteriorate.  At  the  period  of  the  Revolution  the  colo- 
nists were  thought,  in  England,  to  have  degenerated  in 
their  wilderness  life.  They  had  at  least  grown  to  be  dif- 
ferent from  Englishmen,  and  this  fact,  far  more  than  any 
real  oppressions  which  they  were  obliged  to  endure,  was 
the  cause  of  their  political  separation.  The  British  civi- 
lization which  they  had  brought  with  them  had  undergone 
a  change,  and  this  change  now  made  distasteful  the  laws 

O       '  O 

and  restrictions  and  the  entire  rule  which  England  con- 
tinued to  exercise  over  them.  The  traditional  principles 
of  British  constitutional  law  had  come  to  be  differently 
understood  and  applied  by  the  two  divisions  of  the  Eng- 
lish race.  Here,  amidst  the  looser  freedom  of  colonial 
life,  these  principles  seemed  to  forbid  restrictions,  to  de- 
mand self-government,  and  even  to  justify  resistance  to 


246  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

taxation,  unless  levied  by  colonial  consent.  There,  the 
principal  thought  was  of  the  power  of  Parliament,  the 
expense  incurred  in  defending  the  colonies  in  the  war 
with  France,  and  the  best  way  in  which  they  could  be 
made  to  reimburse  the  treasury.  The  views  of  the  col- 
onists were  rather  vigorously  put  forth  in  petitions  and 
documents  of  various  kinds,  often  rudely  written,  but 
breathing  strongly  the  ancient  spirit  of  English  freedom. 
The  views  of  the  government  were  embodied  in  acts  of 
Parliament  and  in  innumerable  state  papers  of  the 
ministers,  while  the  average  tone  of  British  opinion  was 
pretty  faithfully  reflected  in  literary  productions  like 
Dr.  Johnson's  "  Taxation  no  Tyranny."  The  materials 
which  had  thus  been  collected  in  these  scattered  English 
settlements  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  modified  as  they  had 
been  by  the  trials  and  struggles  of  colonial  life,  were  now 
to  be  wrought  together  in  a  new  political  organization, 
and,  under  the  new  forces  brought  to  act  upon  them,  were 
to  be  formed  into  a  new  civilization,  whose  diffusion  over 
the  continent  is  the  most  remarkable  social  phenomenon 
of  the  last  hundred  years. 

The  epochs  or  periods  in  the  progress  of  our  civiliza- 
tion may  be  most  naturally  made  to  conform  to  certain 
periods  in  our  political  history  to  which  they  correspond, 
though  these  periods  are  not  very  precisely  fixed,  and  at 
many  points  they  run  into  each  other.  My  general  pur- 
pose is  to  set  forth  the  agencies  which  throughout  the  cen- 
tury have  shaped  this  civilization  and  made  it  what  it  is, 
rather  than  to  point  out  any  precise  stages  of  its  progres- 
sive development.  These  periods  may  be  stated  as  fol- 
lows :  1.  The  period  of  the  War  of  the  Revolution  and  the 
organization  of  the  constitutional  government,  extending 
from  1776  to  1789.  2.  The  period  in  which  American 
nationality  became  fully  asserted  and  established,  which 
also  includes  the  purchase  of  Louisiana.  This  period 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.   247 

ends  with  the  peace  of  1815.  3.  The  rapid  development 
of  the  internal  resources  of  the  country,  the  growth  of  the 
leading  American  industries,  and  the  rise  and  prolonged 
discussion  of  great  constitutional  questions  to  1850.  4. 
The  formation  of  sectional  parties  on  the  question  of 
slavery,  the  war  of  secession,  and  its  consequences  to  the 
present  time. 

There  is  certainly  one  aspect  in  which  the  War  of  the 
Revolution  is  a  most  unattractive  subject  for  history  to 
describe ;  and  this  is  found  in  the  want  of  unity  in  the 
colonies,  the  petty  jealousies  which  separated  them,  and 
the  unmitigated  selfishness  which  so  generally  controlled 
the  action  of  their  legislatures.  Independence  was  de- 
clared long  before  any  political  organization  was  formed 
for  maintaining  it.  A  Congress,  as  it  was  called,  had 
assembled  in  1774  to  consider  what  ought  to  be  done, 
but  its  members  had  no  power  to  bind  those  whom  they 
represented.  They  were  not  indeed  representatives.  A 
second  Congress  met  in  1775,  but  it  had  no  power  to  do 
anything,  and  all  its  resolutions  were  mere  recommenda- 
tions. It,  however,  in  some  sense  raised  an  army,  ap- 
pointed a  general-in-chief,  and,  on  receiving  permission 
from  the  colonies,  it  made  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, a  Declaration  which  was  ratified  and  repeated  over 
the  whole  country.  But  as  yet  there  was  neither  govern- 
ment nor  nation,  save  in  a  very  limited  and  inadequate 
sense.  Never  in  history  has  a  great  war  been  carried  on 
to  a  successful  issue  under  an  authority  so  ill  contrived 
and  so  little  suited  to  the  purposes  which  it  had  under- 
taken to  accomplish.  But  the  colonies  persistently  re- 
fused to  make  this  authority  any  stronger  or  to  invest  it 
with  any  greater  efficiency.  To  create  a  nation  in  any 
true  and  proper  sense  was  not  at  the  outset  an  aspira- 
tion of  the  colonial  legislatures.  All  they  aimed  at  was 
independence.  They  aspired  rather  to  be  thirteen  States, 


248  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

like  tbe  cantons  of  Switzerland,  and  they  would  then  have 
shrunk  from  giving  up  their  several  sovereignties  in  order 
to  become  one  nation.  Fortunately,  the  American  Revo- 
lution accomplished  far  more  than  its  original  aims.  If 
it  had  not  done  so,  it  would  have  been  an  event  of  little 
importance  to  the  progress  of  civilization.  Along  with 
the  independence  which  it  finally  secured,  it  also  gave  the 
colonies  an  impulse  towards  that  national  unity  without 
which  independence  would  have  been  of  but  secondary 
moment.  It  raised  them  above  the  narrow  political  ideas 
which  had  ruled  the  minds  of  the  people.  It  lifted  them 
out  of  their  isolated  provincial  existence,  and  imparted  to 
them  the  rudiments  of  a  national  life.  In  this  way,  and 
in  this  alone,  the  dreary  War  of  the  Revolution  was  civil- 
izing in  its  agencies  and  its  results. 

But  after  independence  was  once  secured,  national  senti- 
ments seemed  for  a  time  to  decline.  The  prevailing  idea 
was  that  the  work  to  which  the  colonies  had  been  called 
was  already  done,  instead  of  being  just  begun.  The  spec- 
tacle is  a  melancholy  one  to  contemplate.  The  concep- 
tions of  what  was  requisite  in  order  to  be  a  nation  and  to 
have  a  permanent  place  among  the  nations  of  the  world 
were  all  of  the  most  meagre  character,  save  as  they  existed 
in  a  few  broad  and  far-seeing  minds.  The  country  was 
still,  as  it  had  been  from  the  beginning,  without  a  govern- 
ment. Articles  of  Confederation  had  been  proposed  by 
Congress  as  early  as  1776,  but  they  had  not  been  adopted 
till  1781,  near  tbe  close  of  the  war,  and  even  the  feeble 
restrictions  which  they  imposed  upon  local  sovereignty 
were  scarcely  heeded.  Congress  had  established  a  post- 
office  and  a  national  flag,  and  beyond  these  there  was  lit- 
tle, if  anything,  to  remind  the  people  of  the  States  that 
the  United  States  existed.  Each  State  still  collected  the 
revenues,  levied  all  the  taxes,  and  exercised  every  attribute 
of  sovereignty  except  treating  with  foreign  powers,  and 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.    249 

each  State  paid  its  share  of  the  public  expenditures  with 
such  promptness  or  such  tardiness  as  best  suited  its  own 
convenience  or  inclinations.  The  Congress  of  the  Confed- 
eration was  at  best  merely  a  legislative  body,  and  that  only 
in  a  very  loose  and  uncertain  way  ;  for  its  subjects  were 
not  citizens,  but  impracticable  and  unmanageable  sovereign 
States.  There  existed  neither  executive  nor  judicial  au- 
thority. It  could  not  pay  its  debts,  it  could  not  suppress 
insurrection,  it  could  not  fulfill  its  treaty  stipulations.  The 
greatest  and  most  useful  work  it  ever  did  was  to  demon- 
strate its  own  incompetency,  and  the  necessity  of  creating 
a  government  that  should  be  able  to  rule  the  country,  to 
take  possession  of  its  resources,  and  to  compel  submis- 
sion from  the  local  democracies  into  which  its  population 
was  distributed.  That  such  a  government  was  so  speed- 
ily created,  and  that,  too,  without  tumult  or  distraction, 
was  the  proudest  triumph  of  the  age,  —  more  creditable  to 
American  character  than  all  the  endurances  and  all  the 
achievements  of  the  war.  The  latter  secured  indepen- 
dence, but  the  former  secured  nationality,  without  which 
independence  would  have  been  of  little  importance,  and 
any  brilliant  career  in  civilization  impossible.  Fortu- 
nately, the  framing  of  the  new  government  fell  into  the 
hands  of  no  professional  constitution  -  makers,  such  as 
were  so  common  in  Europe  after  the  French  Revolution. 
It  was  the  work  of  practical  rather  than  philosophical 
statesmen,  and  it  carefully  provided  for  the  great  and  ob- 
vious necessities  of  the  country  without  attempting  to  re- 
construct the  social  organization.  It  was  such  as  grew 
naturally  out  of  the  existing  condition  of  the  country.  It 
was  republican,  because  all  the  social  antecedents  of  the 
country  required  that  it  should  be  so.  It  was  federal,  not 
from  any  choice,  but  because  the  population  from  the  be- 
ginning had  been  grouped  in  Colonies  and  States,  and  it 
could  not  now  be  changed.  It  protected  slavery  in  the 


250  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

States  that  chose  to  tolerate  it,  because  without  such  pro- 
tection no  constitution  could  be  adopted  and  no  govern- 
ment could  exist.  It  had  also  the  great  peculiarity  of 
containing  no  provision  for  the  support  of  religion.  In 
this  respect  it  was  the  first  experiment  that  had  ever  been 
made.  Though  all  admitted  that  no  other  plan  could  be 
adopted,  yet  the  experiment  was  deemed  to  be  full  of 
dangers,  and  was  regarded  with  the  gravest  solicitude  by 
many  of  the  best  and  most  patriotic  men  of  the  time.  As 
a  whole,  however,  it  was  a  work  of  singular  wisdom.  It 
forms  a  brilliant  and  triumphant  close  of  the  first  period 
of  American  civilization ;  the  harbinger,  also,  and  in  some 
sense  the  guarantee,  of  all  that  has  thus  far  followed  in 
the  social  and  political  progress  of  the  country.  That  it 
was  so  readily  adopted  and  set  in  operation  by  nearly  all 
the  States,  in  the  face  of  prejudices  and  difficulties  that 
seemed  insuperable,  is  a  result  to  be  gloried  in ;  that  it 
was  accepted  by  majorities  so  small  in  some  of  the  States, 
and  was  for  a  time  rejected  by  our  own,  only  suggests 
how  nearly  they  all  came  to  missing  the  only  career  that 
could  lead  them  to  greatness  and  power.  The  work,  then, 
of  this  first  period  was  to  create  a  nation  capable  of 
guaranteeing  the  individual  and  social  progress  in  which 
civilization  consists. 

The  second  epoch  opens  with  the  inauguration  of  Presi- 
dent Washington  in  1789.  Already  a  more  national  tone 
inspires  the  public  councils,  broader  ideas  prevail  among 
the  people,  and  the  statesmen  of  the  country  are  animated 
by  loftier  hopes.  The  great  name  of  the  President,  how- 
ever, was  still  the  only  basis  of  confidence  with  other 
nations.  The  conspicuous  task  of  the  new  government 
was  to  satisfy  the  nations  of  Europe  that  the  colonies  had 
achieved  a  truly  national  independence,  and  were  deter- 
mined to  maintain  it.  This  was  the  essential  work  of  the 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.    251 

period  now  under  consideration.  England  had  retained 
the  military  posts  within  our  frontiers  ostensibly  because 
the  Confederation  had  not  been  able  to  fulfill  its  part  of 
the  treaty  of  peace,  but  really,  as  her  ministers  declared, 
because  she  expected  soon  to  recover  her  lost  possessions, 
and  to  this  end  was  her  policy  directed.  The  contempt 
for  the  Americans,  rooted  so  deeply  in  the  English  mind 
when  the  Revolution  began,  had  not  been  eradicated  by 
the  events  of  the  war.  It  prompted  every  sort  of  inso- 
lence which  British  officials  dared  to  show.  They  inter- 
fered with  our  rights  of  fishery  ;  they  insulted  our  flag 
on  the  seas ;  they  kept  alive  with  all  sorts  of  encourage- 
ment the  revengeful  passions  of  the  Indian  tribes  that 
prowled  around  our  settlements,  and  still  hoped,  with  Brit- 
ish help,  to  regain  the  hunting-grounds  which  they  had 
once  possessed.  It  was  no  wonder  that  the  masses  of  the 
people  were  filled  with  intense  hatred  of  England,  and, 
though  the  suggestion  was  ludicrous,  it  was  scarcely 
strange  that  they  were  soon  ready  and  even  clamorous  for 
another  war  with  the  mother  country.  Barely  was  the 
new  government  in  full  operation  when  the  world  was 
startled  by  the  most  exciting  event  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, —  the  overthrow  of  the  French  monarchy  and  the 
proclamation  of  the  French  republic.  Most  exciting  was 
this  event  in  the  United  States.  France  had  followed 
our  example  in  overthrowing  kingly  power!  A  sister 
republic  had  proclaimed  death  to  tyrants  and  was  claim- 
ing American  sympathy  within  fifteen  years  from  the 
Declaration  of  American  Independence  !  The  appeal  was 
irresistible.  The  new  republic  rushed  into  the  arms  of 
the  American  people  with  gushing  declarations  of  lib- 
erty and  fraternity.  She  solicited  our  closest  friendship. 
She  reminded  us  of  the  aid  given  us  by  France,  and  with- 
out delay  she  began  to  use  us  as  confederates  in  her  wild 
propagandise!  of  revolution.  The  affectionate  embraces 


252  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

of  France  soon  became  more  dangerous  to  national  inde- 
pendence and  dignity,  and  no  less  offensive  to  national 
pride,  than  the  open  insults  of  England.  Both  these  na- 
tions, though  in  different  ways,  treated  the  American  peo- 
ple with  an  effrontery  which  not  only  outraged  the  national 
sovereignty,  but  showed  that  they  held  us  not  as  their 
equals,  but  as  their  inferiors.  Never  was  the  firmness  of 
Washington  so  severely  tried.  He  was  determined  that 
this  country  should  remain  neutral  in  the  wars  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  most  heroically  did  he  carry  his 
determiuation  into  effect,  though  in  doing  so  he  periled, 
and  for  a  time  lost,  his  unequaled  popularity  among  his 
countrymen.  War  either  with  England  or  France  seemed 
inevitable ;  but  he  postponed  it  with  either,  though  it  came 
a  few  years  later  with  both.  Nations  decline  in  self- 
respect  and  true  glory,  and  civilization  takes  on  an  infe- 
rior character,  when  they  submit  to  be  underlings  to  others. 
To  save  the  republic  from  this  humiliation  was  the  chief 
work  of  the  period  we  are  now  considering. 

So  soon  as  the  country  recovered  from  the  impoverish- 
ment of  the  war  of  separation,  American  commerce  opened 
trade  with  the  great  marts  of  the  world.  On  entering  the 
Mediterranean,  it  immediately  encountered  the  tribute 
which  the  States  of  Barbary  had  long  levied,  with  the 
connivance  of  England  and  France,  on  the  ships  of  all 
nations.  Our  vessels  refused  to  submit  to  the  lawless  ex- 
action, and  their  crews  in  great  numbers  were  carried  into 
Mohammedan  slavery.  The  war  with  Tripoli  which  en- 
sued, and  the  gallant  exploits  of  Preble  and  Decatur,  of 
Truxton  and  Morris,  may  be  said  to  have  created  the 
American  navy,  and  to  have  demonstrated  how  formidable 
a  power  we  might  become  upon  the  seas.  This  country 
thus  became  not  only  the  first  to  refuse  the  tribute  exacted 
by  the  Algerines,  but  also  the  first  to  proclaim  the  freedom 
of  the  seas. 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.    253 

Of  similar  origin  was  the  war  with  England  in  1812. 
It  grew  out  of  a  series  of  studied  insults  to  the  American 
flag  and  outrages  on  American  citizens.  Though  it  left 
unsettled  the  particular  questions  for  which  it  was  avow- 
edly waged,  yet  it  demonstrated  the  national  strength  and 
exalted  the  national  character.  With  this  war  became 
extinct  the  great  political  party  which  had  formed  the 
Constitution  and  set  its  machinery  in  motion,  which  had 
sustained  the  administrations  of  Washington  and  Adams, 
which  had  withstood  the  fascinations  of  a  French  alli- 
ance, which  had  kept  the  peace  with  England  in  the  face 
of  mighty  provocations  to  war,  and  which,  though  out  of 
power  for  ten  years,  had  steadily  opposed  the  War  of  1812. 
The  Federal  party,  though  probably  the  purest  in  Amer- 
ican politics,  had  yet  aimed  at  what  was  impossible,  and 
what  was  undesirable  even  if  it  were  possible.  The  spirit 
and  manners  of  the  American  people  were  from  the  be- 
ginning essentially  democratic,  and  it  was  inevitable  that 
the  popular  will  would  sooner  or  later  make  itself  directly 
felt  in  the  action  of  the  government.  The  extinction  of 
this  party  altered  the  fortunes  of  the  country,  and  in  some 
sense  the  character  of  the  government.  From  that  time 
all  parties  have  been  essentially  democratic,  and  the  peo- 
ple have  been  the  controlling  force  in  national  affairs,  and 
have  held  in  their  own  hands  the  destiny  of  the  republic. 
Hence  have  arisen  universal  suffrage,  a  rapid  and  vast 
development  of  popular  talent,  energy,  and  ambition,  and 
the  continual  rise  of  men  of  eminence  and  renown  from 
the  humblest  ranks  of  social  life.  All  this  was  attended 
by  an  immense  increase  of  national  sentiment,  which,  had 
it  not  been  for  counteracting  agencies,  would  have  created 
a  vigorous  national  unity  that  no  state -rights  theories 
could  ever  have  harmed. 

But,  considered  in  its  ulterior  consequences,  no  event 
belonging  to  this  epoch  was  so  important  as  the  purchase 


254  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

of  Louisiana  from  France  in  1803.  Prior  to  this,  Spain, 
and  afterwards  France,  had  held  control  not  only  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  but  also  of  its  entire  western 
bank,  —  a  fact  that  was  sure  to  be  productive  of  unnum- 
bered woes.  This  transaction,  in  its  bearing  on  our 
American  destiny,  is  to  be  associated  with  the  previous 
cession  to  the  United  States  in  1784,  by  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  other  States,  of  the  great  territory  north- 
west of  the  Ohio.  By  the  Ordinance  of  1787  —  one  of 
the  few  illustrious  enactments  in  the  dreary  legislation  of 
the  Continental  Congress  after  the  Revolution  —  this  splen- 
did tract  was  organized  into  a  territory,  out  of  which 
five  future  States  were  to  be  created,  from  all  of  which 
slavery  was  to  be  forever  excluded.  It  was  in  connec- 
tion with  this  that  the  Louisiana  purchase  assumed  its 
vast  significance.  It  stretched  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
northward  to  British  America,  and  from  the  Mississippi 
westward,  in  indefinite  lines,  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The 
purchase  was  admitted  to  be  beyond  the  constitutional 
authority  of  the  government,  and  was  strongly  opposed  by 
the  Federal  party.  Even  Washington  recorded  his  oppo- 
sition to  it.  But  it  was  deemed  to  be  justified  by  its  great 
importance,  even  when  that  importance  was  only  partially 
developed  and  dimly  perceived  in  the  distant  future. 

These  two  imperial  possessions  have  ever  since  been  the 
unconscious  guardians  of  the  republic  and  the  architects 
of  its  destiny.  In  the  first  place,  the  mighty  river  that 
rolls  between  them,  and  washes  one  or  both  of  them  from 
its  sources  to  its  mouth,  makes  them  one  country,  which 
no  hand  of  man  can  separate  or  divide.  In  the  second 
place,  they  furnished  the  most  important  theatres  in  which 
the  stupendous  struggle  between  freedom  and  slavery  for 
the  mastery  of  the  government  was  to  be  mainly  decided. 
As  should  be  the  occupants  of  these  central  regions,  so 
would  be  the  fate  of  the  republic.  The  early  exclusion  of 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.   255 

slavery  from  the  former  pledged  its  people  to  the  cause 
of  freedom  by  their  own  organic  law,  while  all  but  two 
of  the  great  States  that  have  been  formed  in  the  other  sent 
their  hardy  sons  to  battle  for  the  Union.  It  was  in  Kan- 
sas, too,  that  the  two  forces  first  met  in  open  conflict  for 
the  possession  of  the  embryo  State,  and  the  issue  of  that 
preliminary  conflict  foreshadowed  the  grander  issue  of  the 
Civil  War.  Though  the  extent  of  this  magnificent  pur- 
chase was  imperfectly  known  either  by  the  government 
that  sold  it  or  the  government  that  bought  it,  its  impor- 
tance to  this  country  was  but  narrowly  estimated  by  Na- 
poleon, then  First  Consul,  who  said  to  the  commissioners 
that  signed  the  treaty,  "  This  accession  of  territory  es- 
tablishes the  power  of  the  United  States,  and  I  have  now 
given  to  England  a  rival  that  will  sooner  or  later  humble 
her  pride." 

The  third  epoch  of  our  civilization  I  make  to  extend 
from  the  close  of  the  war  with  England  to  1850,  when 
slavery  had  become  the  controlling  question  in  American 
politics.  The  position  of  the  republic  was  fully  assured 
among  the  nations,  and  was  the  subject  of  unlimited  satis- 
faction to  all  its  inhabitants.  The  cessation  of  party  strife 
which  followed  soon  after  the  war  was  especially  favor- 
able alike  to  new  enterprises  of  maritime  commerce,  to  the 
development  of  new  industries,  and  the  exploration  and 
settlement  of  the  new  regions  which  had  been  added  to 
the  public  domain.  With  these,  too,  were  mingled  wide- 
spread popular  sympathies  in  the  revolutionary  move- 
ments then  going  on  in  Spanish  America.  It  was  a  period 
of  immense  activity  and  enterprise,  in  which  the  whole 
country  appeared  to  be  filled  with  a  full  consciousness  of 
its  greatness  and  strength.  All  this,  it  must  be  admitted, 
was  attended  with  drawbacks  and  dangers,  which  were 
specially  felt  in  American  civilization.  The  prosperity  of 


256  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

the  country  and  its  geographical  dimensions  seemed  all  at 
once  to  enlarge  the  importance  of  every  one  of  its  citizens, 
and  to  give  to  them  an  inordinate  faith  in  its  manifest 
destiny.  We  became  a  nation  of  braggarts,  with  man- 
ners that  made  us  particularly  disagreeable  to  foreigners. 
We  also  were  seized  with  an  appetite  for  new  territory, 
which,  for  a  generation  and  more,  was  well-nigh  insatia- 
ble, and  which  continually  prompted  us  to  measures,  both 
of  peace  and  of  war,  that  were  of  the  most  dubious  recti- 
tude. During  the  period  now  in  question  Florida  was 
purchased  of  Spain,  in  1820 ;  the  republic  of  Texas,  at  its 
own  solicitation,  was  annexed  as  a  State  in  1845;  and  Cali- 
fornia, Utah,  and  New  Mexico  were  added  to  the  repub- 
lic at  the  close  of  the  Mexican  War  in  1848.  To  explore 
and  settle,  to  organize  and  govern,  the  vast  regions  be- 
yond the  Mississippi  has,  ever  since  their  acquisition,  been 
the  ceaseless  and  still  unfinished  work  of  the  American 
people.  It  has  offered  the  fullest  scope  to  their  migra- 
tory propensities,  and  it  has  been  greatly  stimulated  and 
abundantly  rewarded  by  the  unimagined  resources  which 
have  been  brought  to  light. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  civilization  of  the 
thirteen  colonies,  which  a  century  ago  contained  only 
3,500,000  white  people,  could  thus  be  expanded  over  the 
continent  without  being  diluted  and  enfeebled  on  its  way. 
The  civilized  man  of  necessity  parts  with  some  elements 
of  civilization  when  he  moves  to  the  frontier,  and  there 
fights  the  battle  of  life  with  the  mighty  forces  of  nature 
and  with  barbarians.  But  more  than  this  is  true.  The 
vast  western  emigrations  which  have  been  going  on 
through  the  entire  century,  and  especially  through  the  last 
fifty  years,  have  retarded  our  civilization  even  in  its  ori- 
ginal seats.  For  its  higher  developments  it  requires  com- 
pact communities,  where  public  interests,  intellectual  cul- 
ture, and  social  refinement  are  concentrated.  Nor  were 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.   257 

the  settlements  in  the  new  States  made  by  our  own  peo- 
ple alone.  The  emigration  from  the  various  countries  of 
Europe,  from  the  close  of  the  Revolution  to  the  present 
time,  is  estimated  at  six  millions  of  people,  comparatively 
few  of  whom  have  been  above  the  standard  of  our  own 
civilization,  while  the  immense  majority  have  been  below 
it.  It  is  not  surprising  that  our  progress  in  higher  civili- 
zation has  fallen  far  behind  our  progress  in  material  pros- 
perity. It  was  inevitable.  The  real  occasion  for  surprise 
is  that  our  civilization  has  borne  as  well  as  it  has  the  tre- 
mendous drains  which  have  been  made  upon  it,  and  es- 
pecially that  it  has  received  into  its  bosom,  and  assimilated 
to  itself  with  so  little  deterioration,  the  diversified  ele- 
ments that  were  poured  into  it  from  beyond  the  Atlantic. 
What  has  been  done  required  not  intellectual  culture  and 
aesthetic  tastes,  but  rather  a  vigorous  manhood  and  the 
ability  to  subjugate  nature,  or  what  perhaps  is  the  same 
thing,  the  common  sense  that  learns  her  laws  and  makes 
them  subservient  to  its  own  purposes.  It  should  be  added 
that  this  work  was  immensely  facilitated  by  the  great  wa- 
tercourses which  were  long  the  only  highways  of  westward 
emigration.  Afterwards  came  the  roads  and  canals,  which 
were  built  either  by  the  national  government  or  the 
States.  When  to  these  were  added  the  steamboat,  a 
purely  American  invention,  the  tide  rolled  westward  with 
a  tremendous  volume.  The  later  appliances  of  the  rail- 
road are  only  completing  the  exploration  and  settling  of 
our  public  domain. 

It  was  during  this  period,  also,  that  there  arose  those 
great  questions  of  public  policy  and  of  constitutional  in- 
terpretation, which,  while  they  profoundly  agitated,  also 
educated  the  minds  of  the  people  and  made  them  familiar 
with  the  principles  of  our  government.  It  was  the  age  of 
parliamentary  eloquence  and  of  famous  national  orators, 
whom  multitudes  flocked  to  the  Capitol  to  hear,  and  whose 


258  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

printed  speeches  were  read  not  only  in  the  cities  of  the 
Atlantic  States,  but  in  log-cabins  on  the  remotest  frontier. 
These  questions  at  first  related  to  the  power  of  the  gen- 
eral government  to  impose  tariffs  and  make  internal  im- 
provements. Then  came  the  more  vital  question,  born  of 
our  very  organization,  whether  we  were  a  nation  or  only  a 
league  of  sovereign  States.  Behind  all  these  there  grad- 
ually forced  itself  on  public  attention  the  still  graver  and 
more  exciting  question  of  slavery,  which  from  an  early 
period  in  the  present  century  had  darkened  the  horizon  of 
the  republic.  These  questions  were  debated  with  an  elo- 
quence never  equaled  in  American  annals.  So  long  as 
they  related  to  state-rights  and  federal  authority  alone, 
they  were  not  sectional  questions.  The  people  of  both 
South  and  North  were  on  both  sides  of  them.  Slavery, 
however,  was  always  making  use  of  them  to  strengthen 
its  own  position.  So  anomalous  was  its  character  in  the 
midst  of  our  democratic  freedom,  so  wanting  was  it  in 
any  moral  basis  to  rest  upon,  that  it  instinctively  sought 
to  protect  itself  by  every  species  of  alliance  and  by  all 
possible  safeguards  of  its  interest.  Until  1830  its  mo- 
rality was  still  an  open  question  in  the  South.  It  soon, 
however,  became  so  profitable  and  so  vital  to  Southern 
prosperity  that  differences  of  opinion  were  no  longer  tol- 
erated, and  all  voices  of  dissent  were  effectually  silenced 
both  in  Church  and  State.  The  Southern  people,  with 
few  large  cities,  with  an  industry  almost  wholly  agricul- 
tural, and  with  only  two  or  three  staple  productions,  cared 
little  for  national  roads  and  canals,  and  were  especially 
averse  to  tariffs.  The  result  was  that  they  soon  organ- 
ized themselves  into  a  vast  society  for  the  protection  of 
slavery.  On  other  questions  they  might  be  divided,  but 
on  this  they  stood  together  in  solid  phalanx,  without  wa- 
vering and  without  hesitation.  They  had  long  insisted 
that  the  number  of  Slave  States  and  of  Free  States  should 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.    259 

be  kept  equal,  and  that  for  any  new  free  State  a  new 
slave  State  should  be  admitted  into  the  Union.  As  the 
northwestern  territory  had  been  consecrated  to  freedom, 
they  demanded,  as  an  offset,  that  the  whole  Louisiana 
purchase  should  be  open  to  slavery,  though  they  at  length 
accepted  the  Missouri  Compromise  in  1821,  which  limited 
slavery  to  the  parallel  of  36°  30'  of  north  latitude.  As 
we  now  recur  to  the  debates  of  those  eventful  years,  the 
statesmen  of  the  Free  States  often  appear  to  have  per- 
formed no  other  part  than  that  of  mere  temporizers  and 
trimmers,  so  uniformly  did  they  modify  their  principles 
to  suit  their  circumstances.  They  held  forth  in  their 
speeches  the  bravest  views  of  the  supremacy  and  power 
of  the  Union,  but  they  invariably  shrank  from  carrying 
them  into  effect.  They  sometimes  spoke  of  trying  the 
strength  of  the  government  to  enforce  the  laws  of  Con- 
gress against  a  rebellious  State,  but  when  the  crisis  came 
they  always  avoided  it  by  a  compromise.  General  Jack- 
son, it  is  true,  was  ready  to  strangle  nullification  in  South 
Carolina,  but  that  necessity  also  was  avoided  by  a  com- 
promise. Indeed,  on  this  class  of  questions  compromise 
was  then  the  only  statesmanship  that  was  possible.  Nor 
is  this  to  be  set  down  to  a  want  either  of  wisdom  or  of 
courage.  The  interests  of  slavery  in  the  South  were 
closely  connected  with  the  interests  of  industry  in  the 
North,  and  they  were  supported  by  a  powerful  political 
party.  Besides,  the  early  aims  of  the  abolitionists  were 
avowedly  at  variance  with  the  Constitution.  In  these  cir- 
cumstances I  cannot  think  that  the  statesmen  of  that  day 
are  now  to  be  condemned  for  urging  forbearance  and  con- 
cession to  their  utmost  limit  of  endurance,  rather  than 
put  in  jeopardy  the  transcendent  blessings  of  the  Union. 
Thus,  though  in  the  midst  of  unequaled  prosperity  and 
with  the  greatest  apparent  strength  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  the  government  was  continually  shrinking  from 


260  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

the  threatened  collision  with  a  State.  This  was  remarked 
by  De  Tocqueville  as  early  as  1831.  One  half  the  States 
were  now  holding  their  allegiance  to  slavery  as  paramount 
to  every  other.  For  its  preservation  new  territory  was 
continually  demanded.  It  had  been  contended  that  slavery 
was  to  follow  the  law  of  the  soil.  The  French  had  held 
a  few  slaves  in  the  territory  out  of  which  Louisiana  and 
Arkansas  had  been  created,  and  slavery  was  of  course  to 
be  admitted  in  these  States.  This  rule  would  have  ex- 
cluded it  from  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  for  there  slavery 
had  been  abolished  by  Mexican  law.  The  ground,  how- 
ever, was  now  changed,  and  the  right  was  claimed  to  carry 
it  into  every  territory  by  the  force  of  the  Constitution  it- 
self. California  was  made  free  by  its  own  choice.  But 
its  admission  as  a  State  was  violently  resisted,  and  was 
secured  at  length  in  1850  only  by  another  compromise,  of 
which  Mr.  Clay  was  the  author.  It  provided :  1.  That 
California  be  admitted  as  a  free  State.  2.  That  New 
Mexico  and  Utah  be  organized  as  Territories,  without  re- 
striction as  to  slavery.  3.  A  pecuniary  compensation  to 
Texas  for  the  surrender  of  her  claims  to  certain  territory. 
4.  The  enactment  of  a  new  fugitive  slave  law.  5.  The 
suppression  of  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia. This  was  the  Compromise  of  1850,  the  last  ever 
consummated  between  freedom  and  slavery  under  the 
government  of  the  United  States. 

Thus  we  reach  the  latest  epoch  of  American  civiliza- 
tion, —  an  epoch  which  was  only  to  bear  the  fruits  of  all 
that  had  gone  before,  to  reap  the  bitter  harvest  of  suf- 
fering and  war,  of  which  the  seeds  had  been  planted 
in  our  original  social  organization.  It  embraces  twenty- 
six  years,  of  which  eleven  were  years  of  growing  sec- 
tional alienation  and  strife,  five  of  open  war,  and  the  re- 
maining ten  of  reconstruction  and  recovery.  For  the  first 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.   261 

time  since  slavery  had  begun  to  assert  its  claims  as  a  po- 
litical power,  the  Compromise  of  1850  had  left  the  advan- 
tage with  the  Free  States,  but  with  the  fugitive  slave  law 
as  a  tremendous  offset.  The  compromise  produced  any- 
thing but  contentment  on  either  side.  In  the  South  the 
alarm  was  well-nigh  universal  lest  it  would  speedily  lose 
its  control  in  the  republic.  It  put  forth  its  utmost  efforts 
to  people  Kansas  with  slave-holders,  in  order  to  make  it 
a  slave  State,  but  it  utterly  failed,  and  experienced  the 
most  ignominious  of  defeats.  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  the 
great  slave-breeding  States,  "  the  Congo,"  as  Lord  Macau- 
lay  called  them,  "  of  the  other  States,"  could  not  produce 
slaves  enough  to  meet  the  wants  of  their  cotton  growing 
sisters.  In  this  emergency  a  frantic  movement  was  made 
to  reopen  the  African  slave-trade,  and  some  cargoes  of 
slaves  were  unquestionably  landed  on  the  coast.  So  com- 
plete, however,  was  the  debasement  of  the  Southern  mind 
that  even  this  atrocity  received  only  a  qualified  rebuke, 
and  that  on  the  grounds  of  expediency  and  good  policy. 
Not  only  all  public  interests,  but  all  sanctions  of  morality 
and  all  teachings  of  religion,  were  forced  to  be  subservient 
to  the  maintenance  and  perpetuity  of  slavery. 

In  the  Free  States  the  hostility  to  the  institution  was 
constantly  increasing  among  all  classes  of  the  people. 
By  far  the  most  numerous  class,  however,  comprised 
those  who  were  willing  to  accord  to  it  its  constitutional 
guarantees  in  the  States  where  it  already  existed,  but  were 
determined  by  all  legal  means  to  resist  its  extension  into 
the  Territories  of  the  United  States ;  a  second  but  much 
smaller  class  were  comparatively  indifferent  to  the  whole 
question,  and  were  quite  willing  to  let  the  South  have  its 
own  way ;  while  a  third  class,  most  especially  feared  and 
hated  in  the  South,  comprised  the  open  abolitionists,  who 
aimed  to  overthrow  and  extirpate  slavery  from  the  coun- 
try, though  into  doing  it  they  should  hurl  the  Constitution 


262  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

and  the  Union  into  common  ruin.  The  general  conscience 
of  the  people  in  the  Free  States  was  fast  declaring  itself 
at  variance  with  the  slavery  provisions  of  the  Constitution. 
Multitudes  of  the  people  felt  called  upon  by  the  highest 
sentiments  of  duty  to  act  against  an  institution  to  which 
the  laws  gave  their  protection.  A  condition  of  affairs 
like  this  in  the  two  great  sections  of  the  country  insensi- 
bly wrought  a  demoralization  that  was  well-nigh  univer- 
sal, and  threatened  serious  disasters  to  all  high  civiliza- 
tion. In  one  part  of  the  country  all  moral  sentiments 
were  held  in  absolute  subordination  to  the  despotism  of 
slavery.  In  the  other  they  assumed  a  position  and 
prompted  an  action  at  variance  with  the  Constitution  and 
laws  of  the  Republic.  In  the  former  there  was  a  growing 
brutality  which  burst  forth  on  the  slightest  provocation, 
in  spite  of  the  utmost  effort  that  could  be  made  to  re- 
press it.  In  the  latter  there  was  open  resistance  to  law 
as  often  as  it  was  invoked  for  the  rendition  of  a  fugitive 
slave ;  and  this  too  not  among  the  lawless  and  criminal 
classes,  but  on  the  part  of  citizens  of  character  and  stand- 
ing, often  distinguished  for  their  piety  and  worth,  who 
appealed  for  their  justification  to  a  law  higher  than  any 
human  enactments.  Fortunately,  the  continuance  of  all 
this  was  short.  The  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  put  an 
end  to  it  all.  And  when  that  war  was  ended  not  a  vestige 
remained  of  the  malignant  power  which  had  threatened 
such  disasters  to  American  civilization ;  which  had  en- 
thralled the  bodies  of  four  millions  of  black  men  and  the 
souls  of  thirty  millions  of  white  men.  The  triumph  was 
complete.  The  cost  indeed  was  tremendous,  but  not 
greater  than  it  was  worth ;  for  it  was  a  triumph  not  over 
secession  and  slavery  alone,  but  over  barbarism  and  wrong 
which  were  debasing  the  conscience  and  degrading  the 
character  of  the  American  people.  After  what  was  then 
accomplished,  whatever  our  future  may  be,  it  certainly 
cannot  be  like  the  past. 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.    263 

I.  It  must  be  admitted,  I  think,  that  our  civilization 
during  the  century  has  been  distinguished  rather  for  its 
wide  and  rapid  diffusion  than  for  the  elevation  which  it 
has  attained.  Its  special  work  has  been  to  subdue  the 
forest  and  people  the  prairie,  and  this  work  is  scarcely 
compatible  with  high  refinement  either  of  thought  or  of 
life.  It  has  reclaimed  multitudes  from  barbarism  rather 
than  raised  a  select  few  to  the  highest  excellence  of  which 
they  were  capable.  It  has  produced  a  high  average  of 
popular  intelligence  and  character  rather  than  eminent 
examples  of  genius  or  learning  or  intellectual  culture.  De 
Tocqueville  remarked  of  the  United  States  that  "  in  no 
other  country  in  the  world  does  one  find  either  so  few 
men  of  great  learning  or  so  few  men  of  great  ignorance ;  " 
and  the  remark  is  even  now  almost  as  true  as  it  was  fifty 
years  ago.  Until  recently  there  was  nothing  in  our  edu- 
cation to  encourage  tastes  for  special  studies  or  acquire- 
ments, nor  were  such  tastes  appreciated  in  the  country. 
Our  educated  men  knew  a  little  of  many  subjects,  but 
they  mastered  none.  We  also  became  early  possessed  of 
an  inordinate  national  conceit  which  was  unfriendly  to 
anything  like  thorough  or  careful  culture.  Mr.  Adams 
has  lately  reminded  us  that  a  committee  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  prepared  an  address  to  President  Wash- 
ington, in  which  they  styled  him  the  Chief  Magistrate  of 
the  freest  and  most  enlightened  nation  of  the  world,  and 
this  too  at  a  time  when  all  our  science  and  all  our  litera- 
ture were  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Dr.  Franklin 
and  of  Phillis  Wheatley,  the  colored  poetess.  We  dwelt 
too  exclusively  on  ourselves,  and  too  readily  thought  our 
popular  freedom  not  only  a  cure  for  all  the  ills  of  so- 
ciety, but  a  guarantee  for  every  excellence.  We  wor- 
shiped utility  in  intellectual  culture  as  in  everything 
else.  Our  intellectual  activity  was  long  expended  almost 
wholly  on  practical  inventions,  in  which  we  certainly 


264  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

achieved  eminent  success.  All  this,  however,  if  it  has 
not  ceased  to  be  true,  is  far  less  true  than  it  was  thirty 
years  ago. 

II.  Much  has  been  said  in  disparagement  of  our  civil- 
ization, on  account  of  its  democratic   spirit.     We  have 
been  so  often  told,  that  we  almost  believe  it  to  be  true, 
that  this  is  necessarily  unfriendly  to  cultivated  manners, 
to  superior  intellectual  culture,  or  to  success  in  literature, 
science,  or  art.     But  every  word  of  this  disparagement, 
as  time  is  showing,  has  been  premature.    There  have  been 
faults  and  disagreeable  peculiarities  enough  in  American 
character   and  life.     But  none  of  these  are  essential  or 
permanent.      Our  visitors  and  critics  from   abroad  used 
to  delight  themselves  in  showing  them  up,  and  in  ascrib- 
ing them  to  the  democratic  spirit  of  our  society,  greatly  to 
the  disturbance  of  our  sensibilities  as  a  people.    The  early 
volumes  of  our  older  magazines  abound  in  elaborate  and 
often  angry  rejoinders  to  these  irritating  criticisms.     Our 
critics  assumed  that  our  civilization  must  always  be  in- 
ferior.    But  no  one  now  believes  that  there  exists  here 
any  actual  hindrance  to  the  indefinite  progress  both  of 
man  and  society,  in  all  that  constitutes  the  highest  civil- 
ization.    We  have  dispensed  both  with  princes  and  aris- 
tocracy, and  the  century  has  shown  that  large-minded  and 
patriotic  citizens  have  done  all,  and  more  than  all,  that 
princes  and  nobles  in  other  countries  have  ever  done  for 
the  intellectual  training  of  the  people,  and  for  collecting 
the  means  of  the  highest  culture.     It  is  the  peculiarity  of 
our  civilization  that,  far  more  than  any  other,  it  makes 
every  man  the  master  of  his  own  social  destiny,  and  places 
the  destiny  of  society  in  the  hands  of  its  members  rather 
than  of  its  rulers.     As  they  are  so  will  civilization  be. 

III.  A  paper  recently  read  to  the  Club  indicated  how 
complete  is  the  revolution  which  has  taken  place  during 
this  century  in  the  relations  of  religion  to  the  State.     It 


THE  EPOCHS   OF  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.    265 

has  ceased  everywhere  throughout  the  country  to  be  a 
matter  of  which  legislation  takes  any  direct  cognizance. 
It  is  the  one  thing  before  every  other  which  legislation 
studiously  avoids.  The  State,  by  the  very  terms  of  its 
fundamental  law,  no  longer  cares  whether  its  people  are 
Christians,  Mohammedans,  or  Pagans,  or  unbelievers  in 
all  religion.  This  is,  perhaps,  the  natural  result  of  our 
views  of  religious  freedom,  which  have  been  pushed  to  some 
wild  extremes  in  this  country.  It  still  remains  true,  how- 
ever, that  the  essential  life  of  all  high  and  lasting  civili- 
zation is  in  the  religion  of  the  people.  To  keep  it  alive, 
and  to  make  it  efficient  in  the  formation  of  character  and 
the  guidance  of  conduct,  is  a  work  that  cannot  be  dispensed 
with.  Indeed,  taking  into  consideration  the  whole  nature 
of  man,  it  is  not  too  much  to  assert  that  the  true  end  of 
civilization  is  to  make  society  a  theatre  as  favorable  as 
possible  for  the  moral  probation  of  its  members  and  their 
preparation  for  the  life  to  come.  It  is  a  serious  question 
whether  an  American  theory  of  the  State  is  entirely  ade- 
quate to  conducting  civilization  to  any  such  end  as  this. 

IV.  The  triumphant  issue  of  the  civil  war  has  secured 
new  advantages  for  American  civilization.  It  was  a  tri- 
umph of  what  was  best  over  what  was  worst  in  our  polit- 
ical organization.  It  not  only  subjugated  secession,  but 
it  put  an  end  to  those  theories  of  state  sovereignty  which 
have  always  stood  in  the  way  of  national  unity  and  na- 
tional advancement.  And  what  is  far  more  important  in 
its  bearings  on  every  national  interest,  it  overthrew  and 
utterly  annihilated  slavery,  the  transcendent  bane  and 
disgrace  of  our  social  system.  The  republic,  thus  victori- 
ous in  the  mighty  contest,  towers  in  grandeur  and  renown, 
and  steps  forward  to  a  place  among  the  foremost  powers 
of  the  world.  In  this  altered  position  there  is  an  inspira- 
tion such  as  has  never  been  felt  before,  as  there  always 
is  in  a  nation's  history  after  heroic  sacrifices  and  great 


266  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

achievements.  The  life  of  nations,  as  of  men,  is  a  per- 
petual struggle,  and  the  future  of  both  is  always  uncer- 
tain. It  is,  however,  safe  to  say  that  our  civilization  is 
as  likely  to  last  as  any  other.  It  has  no  liability  to  dis- 
aster or  decay  which  every  other  does  not  share  with  it. 
A  thoughtful  English  writer  has  lately  pointed  out  what 
he  styles  "Rocks  Ahead,"  political,  economic,  religious, 
in  the  pathway  of  all  existing  civilizations.  But  if  such 
"  Rocks  "  exist,  they  are  not  more  numerous  in  our  path- 
way than  in  that  of  every  other  people,  and  we  are  at  least 
as  able  as  others  to  avoid  them.  We  must  not  ask  for 
exemption  from  the  trials  and  dangers  that  belong  to  all 
human  institutions.  It  is  enough  that  our  future  is  at 
least  as  fair  and  as  inviting  as  that  of  other  nations. 
With  this  we  will  be  content, 

..."  Nor  bate  a  jot 

Of  heart  or  hope  :  but  still  bear  up  and  steer 
Right  onward." 


THE  FORMATION  AND  ADOPTION  OF  THE 
CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
AS  EXPLAINED  IN  MR.  BANCROFT'S  VOL- 
UMES.1 

THE  volumes  of  Mr.  Bancroft  which  describe  the  for- 
mation and  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  were  published  when  their  author  had  more  than 
half  completed  the  eighty-second  year  of  his  life.  A  work 
so  thorough  in  its  research,  so  elaborate  and  accurate  in 
its  preparation,  and  so  clear  and  condensed  in  its  style,  is 
certainly  to  be  regarded  as  a  rare  exemplification  of  in- 
dustry unabated  and  of  intellectual  powers  unimpaired 
in  the  lapse  of  years.  While,  however,  in  these  respects 
it  bears  no  trace  of  intellectual  decay,  I  cannot  but  hesi- 
tate to  say  that  it  was  altogether  wise  for  him  to  attempt 
so  great  and  difficult  a  task  at  so  advanced  a  period  of 
life.  But  the  fact  that  it  had  been  his  cherished  aspira- 
tion for  fifty  years  to  close  his  History  only  with  the  in- 
auguration of  Washington  disarms  criticism  and  almost 
rebukes  regret.  The  work  is  undoubtedly  creditable  to 
the  genius  of  the  venerable  historian.  The  only  draw- 
back is  that  it  is  not  in  every  respect  all  that  the  subject 
demands.  Over  and  above  thoroughness  of  research, 
judicious  selection  of  materials,  and  accuracy  of  narra- 
tion, to  treat  a  critical  epoch  such  as  this  with  the  best 
effect  requires  that  the  faculties  of  historic  generaliza- 
tion and  of  historic  imagination  be  in  undiminished  vigor 
and  fullest  activity.  It  is  in  those  features  of  the  work 

1  Read  before  the  Friday  Evening  Club,  November  23,  1883. 


268  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

in  which  these  faculties  would  be  displayed,  and  possibly 
in  those  alone,  that  the  careful  reader  discerns  the  dif- 
ference between  the  volumes  which  were  written  in  Mr. 
Bancroft's  youth  and  those  which  have  been  written  in 
his  advanced  age. 

In  his  copious  and  interesting  preface  he  writes,  "  That 
which  I  attempt  to  do  is  to  trace  the  formation  of  the 
Federal  Constitution  from  its  origin  to  its  establishment 
by  the  inauguration  of  its  first  President.  The  subject 
has  perfect  unity,  and  falls  of  itself  into  five  epochs,  or 
acts.  I  have  spared  no  pains  to  compress  the  narrative 
within  the  narrowest  limits  consistent  with  clearness.  In 
weighing  authorities,  I  have  striven  to  follow  with  strict 
severity  the  laws  of  historical  criticism;  ever  careful  to 
discriminate  between  those  materials  which  are  sources 
and  those  which  are  but  helps  or  aids."  But  even  with 
this  purpose  so  distinctly  announced,  his  two  volumes  are 
not  exclusively  the  history  of  the  formation  of  the  Con- 
stitution, but  rather  the  history  of  the  United  States  dur- 
ing the  period  in  which  the  Constitution  was  prepared  for 
and  formed,  beginning  precisely  where  his  last  preceding 
volume  had  ended.  The  volumes  thus  embrace  passages 
and  events  which  have  no  direct  connection  with  the  sub- 
ject whose  "  perfect  unity  "  he  has  so  well  set  forth  in  his 
preface.  They  also  become  a  continuation  of  the  His- 
tory of  the  United  States,  in  which  the  change  of  the  gov- 
ernment from  the  Confederation  to  the  Constitution  is 
the  most  conspicuous  event.  This  disregard  of  the  essen- 
tial unity  of  his  plan  may  have  been  almost  unintentional, 
and  in  many  cases  it  would  have  been  wholly  unobjection- 
able. But  here,  it  seems  to  me,  it  both  disappoints  and 
troubles  the  reader,  and  also  embarrasses  the  author. 
The  amazing  changes  in  the  minds  of  the  American  peo- 
ple, that  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  and 
rendered  its  adoption  possible  in  the  States,  constitute 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.      269 

the  real  subject  of  the  volumes.  It  is  a  subject  of  very 
great  importance,  and  is  worthy  to  be  treated  by  itself. 
Indeed,  unless  it  be  so  treated  it  cannot  be  presented  in 
its  full  proportions  and  effects,  and  made  to  teach  its 
proper  lessons  for  subsequent  generations.  Associated  as 
it  is,  in  these  volumes,  with  the  general  course  of  events, 
and  made  merely  a  part  of  the  general  history  of  the  pe- 
riod, it  loses  its  distinctive  unity  and  is  divested  of  much 
of  its  impressiveness  and  interest.  The  deliverance  of 
the  republic  from  the  Confederation  and  its  settlement 
under  the  Constitution,  next  to  the  triumph  of  the  Union 
arms  in  the  civil  war,  I  regard  as  the  most  honorable  and 
most  significant  event  in  American  history,  and  I  regret 
that  our  illustrious  historian  has  not  made  it  stand  forth 
by  itself  in  all  the  historic  and  political  importance  which 
belongs  to  it. 

Another  serious  disadvantage  attends  the  modified  unity 
which  Mr.  Bancroft  has  allowed  to  shape  his  volumes. 
He  fails  to  supply  to  the  reader  any  adequate  classifi- 
cation of  the  agencies  and  events  by  which  the  grand 
consummation  was  accomplished.  He  in  reality  deals 
with  all  that  belongs  to  the  period,  both  those  events  and 
agencies  which  relate  and  those  which  do  not  relate  to  his 
special  subject.  The  result  is  that  the  reader  is  obliged, 
to  a  large  extent,  to  do  the  work  of  selection  and  classi- 
fication for  himself,  instead  of  having  it  done  for  him 
by  the  historian.  The  subject,  as  is  suggested  in  the  pre- 
face to  the  volumes,  is  one  of  perfect  unity,  and  is  capa- 
ble of  a  dramatic  development  of  great  interest  and  ef- 
fect, such  as  I  have  no  doubt  the  historian  designed  to 
give  to  it,  but  which  his  method  made  impossible.  The 
result  is  that  the  most  momentous  and  vital  moral  and 
social  change  recorded  in  the  history  of  the  country  still 
remains  to  be  adequately  treated.  Let  it  not  be  thought, 
however,  that  the  narrative  is  not  clear  and  well  wrought, 


270  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

or  that  any  material  facts  are  omitted,  still  less  that  it  is 
not  discriminating  and  fair,  and  after  all,  perhaps,  the  best 
history  of  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  which  has 
thus  far  been  written.  What  most  of  all  is  wanting  is  a 
more  perfect  unity  of  design,  a  more  adequate  grouping 
of  the  social  forces  which  were  at  work  among  the 
American  people,  and  possibly  still  more  the  exercise  of 
that  historic  imagination  which  alone  can  transfer  to  the 
pictured  page  the  majestic  march  of  public  events.  That 
these  are  wanting  in  a  historian  of  more  than  fourscore 
years  is  only  what  is  to  be  expected.  The  extraordinary 
fact  is  that  other  faculties  are  in  full  vigor,  and  that  the 
work  as  a  whole  is  pervaded  with  an  accuracy  and  thor- 
oughness not  surpassed  in  any  previous  volumes  which 
have  come  from  the  pen  of  the  venerable  writer. 

The  government  of  the  Confederation  was  not,  save  in 
a  very  vague  sense,  the  creation  of  the  American  people, 
nor  did  it  have  the  people  for  its  subjects.  It  was  in 
direct  antagonism  with  the  ideas  of  popular  sovereignty 
which  now  prevail,  for  it  was  framed  by  the  Revolution- 
ary Congress,  and  adopted,  not  by  the  people,  but  by  the 
state  governments,  and  the  state  governments  were  its 
only  constituents  and  its  real  masters.  Indeed,  popular 
sovereignty,  though  much  blazoned  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  other  political  manifestoes,  was  then  but 
imperfectly  understood.  In  those  days  the  people  of  the 
States  chose  their  legislatures  very  much  as  some  of  the 
great  corporations  of  our  own  days  choose  their  direc- 
tors. They  vested  them  with  full  authority,  and  then  left 
them  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  State  as  they  thought 
best.  It  was  assumed  that  the  legislatures  were  wiser 
than  the  people,  and  that  whatever  they  might  do  the  peo- 
ple would  of  course  ratify  and  approve.  All  the  powers 
of  the  Confederation  government  were  vested  in  a  single 
body  known  as  a  Congress.  It  had  no  separate  executive 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.      271 

head,  it  had  no  judiciary.  This  Congress  assumed  to  gov- 
ern the  United  States  of  America,  —  the  new  civil  society 
which  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  called  into 
existence.  It  had  assigned  to  itself  all  the  legislative, 
executive,  and  judicial  authority  which  pertained  to  this 
society.  It  conducted  its  correspondence  with  foreign 
governments  by  the  agency  of  a  Secretary  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  its  military  administration  by  a  Secretary  of  War, 
and  its  financial  business  by  an  officer  whom  it  styled 
"  Financier."  Each  State  had  a  single  vote.  In  all  im- 
portant matters  the  delegations  of  at  least  nine  States 
must  be  present ;  in  matters  of  mere  form  or  routine  those 
of  seven  States  were  sufficient.  But  no  State  could  cast 
a  vote  at  all  unless  two  members,  a  majority  of  its  dele- 
gation, were  present.  The  members  of  Congress  were 
paid  by  their  respective  States,  and  the  States  cared  very 
little  whether  they  were  present  or  not,  and  often  pre- 
ferred to  avoid  the  expense  of  supporting  their  delegations 
in  Congress.  The  result  of  such  an  organization  of  the 
only  governing  body  of  the  Confederation  was  that  for  a 
large  part  of  the  time  it  was  without  the  number  of  dele- 
gations required  for  a  quorum.  It  often  made  appeals  to 
the  absent  States  to  send  forward  their  delinquent  delega- 
tions, but  seldom  with  much  effect.  The  little  real  busi- 
ness which  Congress  had  the  power  to  transact  was  thus 
continually  delayed,  and  sometimes  wholly  frustrated.  So 
long  as  the  War  of  Independence  engrossed  the  interest 
and  attention  of  the  country,  Congress  retained  at  least 
an  appearance  of  importance  and  a  shadow  of  authority. 
When  this  was  ended,  it  sank  into  impotency  and  con- 
tempt. The  leading  men  of  the  country  ceased  to  be 
members,  in  part  because  of  the  rule  of  rotation  pre- 
scribed in  the  Articles,  but  more  largely  because  the  public 
service  of  the  States  had  become  more  attractive  and  more 
honorable  than  that  of  the  United  States. 


272  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

The  functions  of  this  ill-devised  and  almost  powerless 
government  had  to  do,  first,  with  the  state  governments, 
for  it  had  no  direct  relations  with  the  people  ;  second,  with 
the  creditors  of  the  country,  both  at  home  and  abroad ; 
and,  third,  with  the  governments  of  foreign  nations,  in- 
cluding the  Indian  tribes.  It  is  not  easy  to  determine  in 
which  one  of  these  three  departments  of  its  agency  it 
soon  proved  to  be  the  most  inefficient,  or  in  which  its 
ultimate  failure  was  the  most  signal  and  disastrous. 

I.  As  to  the  States.  The  Confederation  as  a  govern- 
ment was  from  the  beginning  regarded  by  the  States  as  a 
sort  of  disagreeable  necessity,  made  indispensable  only  by 
the  exigencies  of  the  war.  So  soon  as  the  war  came  to 
an  end  they  looked  upon  it  with  constantly  increasing 
jealousy  and  aversion.  They  thought  of  it,  even  in  its 
weakness,  as  a  perpetual  menace  to  those  conceits  of  state 
sovereignty  with  which  their  imaginations  were  filled. 
There  was  really  nothing  that  Congress  could  do  without 
the  consent  of  the  States.  It  levied  quotas  of  troops,  it 
made  requisitions  of  money,  it  negotiated  treaties,  it  con- 
tracted debts  ;  but  not  one  of  these  acts  could  go  into 
full  effect  without  the  consent  of  the  States.  They  were 
always  ready  to  restrict  it.  In  many  of  them  it  was  re- 
garded as  a  special  favor  if  the  requisitions  of  Congress 
were  taken  into  consideration  at  all  by  the  local  legisla- 
ture. During  the  five  years  immediately  preceding  1787, 
of  the  requisitions  made  by  Congress  for  national  pur- 
poses, New  Hampshire,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
and  Georgia  had  paid  nothing  whatever  ;  Connecticut  and 
Delaware  had  each  paid  one  third  the  amount ;  Mas- 
sachusetts. Rhode  Island,  and  Maryland  had  paid  one 
half,  Virginia  three  fifths,  Pennsylvania  nearly  all,  and 
New  York  more  than  all ;  while  New  Jersey  had  not  only 
not  paid,  but  had  distinctly  refused  to  pay,  giving  as  the 
reason  that  New  York  had  stripped  her  of  her  revenues 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.     273 

by  levying  duties  on  all  the  commerce  of  the  bay  that 
washed  the  shores  of  both  States. 

II.  With  such  inattention  on  the  part  of  the  States  to 
requisitions  for  money,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  impossible  it 
was  for  Congress  to  deal  with  its  creditors,  both  at  home 
and  abroad.     Fisher  Ames  wrote  that  "  it  had  bare  rev- 
enue enough  to  buy  stationery  for  its  clerks  and  to  pay 
the  salary  of  its  doorkeeper."     Certificates  of  the  indebt- 
edness of  the  United  States  sunk  to  one  tenth  of  their 
nominal  value.     This  depreciation  gave  rise  to  unlimited 
distress  in  all  mercantile  classes.     Merchants  of  unques- 
tioned credit  were  compelled  to  pay  discounts  of  thirty 
to  fifty  per  cent,  on  their  notes.     The  army  had  been  dis- 
banded in  1783.     Its  unpaid  officers  went  to  their  homes 
in  poverty,  and  multitudes  of  the  unpaid  soldiers,  disabled 
in  the  service,  obtained  their  daily  bread  only  by  beggary. 
The  currency  of  the  States  was  in  inextricable  confusion, 
while  the  Continental  paper  money  was  to  silver  as  forty 
to  one.      Financial  ruin  brooded  over  all  enterprises  of 
business,  and  among  the  ignorant  classes  of  the  population 
was  appearing  that  recklessness  of  social  and  moral  obli- 
gation which  always  presages  social  decay.     The  insurrec- 
tion in  Massachusetts  in  1786  was  the  natural  result  of 
the  real  sufferings  and  the  dangerous  theories  that  were 
prevalent  all  over  the  country. 

III.  This   condition   of   affairs  soon  became  partially 
known   in  foreign  countries,  and  created  the  utmost  dis- 
trust of  all  American  obligations.     The  representatives 
of  the  government  were  treated  with  indignity  at  Euro- 
pean courts,  and  were  distinctly  asked  whether  they  repre- 
sented the  States  as  well  as  the  United  States.     The  Duke 
of  Dorset,  the  British  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  wrote 
to  the  commissioners  of  the  United  States,  who  had  come 
to  London  in  1785  to  negotiate  a  treaty,  that  "  the  appar- 
ent determination  of  the  respective  States  to  control  their 


274  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

own  separate  interests  renders  it  indispensable  that  my 
court  should  be  informed  how  far  they  are  authorized  to 
enter  into  engagements  which  any  one  of  the  States  might 
not  render  totally  useless  and  inefficient."  English  states- 
men regarded  it  as  a  mistake  that  a  treaty  of  peace  had 
been  made  with  the  United  States.  They  thought  it  would 
have  been  better  merely  to  have  acknowledged  indepen- 
dence, and  to  have  made  commercial  arrangements  with 
such  of  the  States  as  desired  them.  Both  England  and 
France  believed  that  the  American  Union  was  a  failure, 
and  that  the  republic  was  fast  tending  to  disintegration 
and  ruin.  So  dilatory  and  irresponsible  as  to  all  public 
interests  were  the  members  of  Congress  that  Marbois, 
the  French  minister,  on  arriving  at  Philadelphia,  found 
there  neither  Congress  nor  any  representative  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  receive  him.  He  wrote  back  to  his  court, 
"  There  exists  no  general  government  in  America,  neither 
Congress  nor  President,  no  head  of  any  one  administrative 
department,"  which  at  the  time  was  literally  true,  though 
it  was  nearly  a  month  after  the  session  ought  to  have 
begun. 

It  should  not  be  inferred,  however,  that  the  Confedera- 
tion Congress  was  unmindful  of  the  evils  which  had  be- 
fallen the  country,  or  of  the  inherent  defects  of  the  system 
which  had  been  devised  for  its  government.  It  had  made 
repeated  and  most  earnest  endeavors  to  obtain  larger 
powers  from  the  state  legislatures  that  always  held  it  in 
control.  So  early  as  1783  it  had  earnestly  solicited  from 
its  sovereign  masters  the  power  to  levy  a  duty  of  five  pet- 
cent,  on  the  imports  of  each  State.  With  much  difficulty 
and  after  long  delay,  consent  was  obtained  from  the  legis- 
latures of  all  the  States  with  the  single  exception  of  Rhode 
Island.  Her  refusal  annulled  the  whole  measure.  Mr. 
Hamilton  was  requested  to  prepare  a  remonstrance,  but 
his  arguments  were  of  no  avail  with  the  legislature.  New 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.     275 

York  and  Virginia  subsequently  revoked  their  consent, 
and  though  Congress  in  later  years  more  than  once  re- 
peated its  solicitation,  it  was  always  without  effect.  Other 
amendments  were  proposed  for  increasing  the  powers  of  the 
central  government,  but  they  constantly  failed  of  success ; 
and  it  is  a  singular  fact,  especially  in  the  light  of  our  sub- 
sequent history,  that  the  Articles  of  Confederation  re- 
mained unaltered  to  the  end  of  their  existence.  Every 
change  required  the  consent  of  the  legislatures  of  all  the 
States.  The  most  insignificant  of  the  States  could  thus 
thwart  the  wishes  of  all  the  others.  It  was  undoubtedly 
fortunate  for  the  country  that  all  these  attempts  to  in- 
crease the  powers  of  Congress  ended  as  they  did.  Had 
they  succeeded  they  would  only  have  prolonged  its  useless 
life.  The  republic  could  be  saved  only  by  abandoning 
the  Confederation,  and  with  it  all  the  false  and  pernicious 
ideas  on  which  it  rested. 

From  the  midst  of  this  general  decay  of  all  national 
sentiments  and  aspirations,  from  this  prevailing  predomi- 
nance of  local  ideas  and  influences,  this  debasing  jealousy 
between  States  and  sections,  how  were  the  American  peo- 
ple to  be  led  up  to  the  creation  of  a  government  which 
should  rescue  them  from  the  frightful  evils  and  perils  of 
the  time,  and  guide  them  onward  towards  the  happy  des- 
tiny that  still  loomed  before  them  through  the  shadows 
of  the  future  ?  The  deliverance  of  the  country  from  the 
humiliations  of  the  Confederation  and  its  establishment 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Constitution  were  a  work  which 
transcends  in  importance  all  other  achievements  of  Amer- 
ican statesmanship.  This  work  involved  a  social  and 
moral  transformation  whose  magnitude  can  scarcely  be 
overestimated,  and  even  to  the  broadest  and  wisest  states- 
men of  the  age,  who  contemplated  it  in  advance,  it  seemed 
to  be  beyond  any  reasonable  expectation.  For,  it  is  to  be 
remembered,  it  was  one  thing  clearly  to  point  out  the  ex- 


276  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

isting  evils,  and  another  and  far  more  difficult  to  devise 
a  new  government  which  the  ill-instructed  and  wrongly 
guided  people  of  the  States  could  be  persuaded  to  adopt. 
The  political  conceits  of  the  time  were  monstrous  and  ap- 
palling. It  was  fondly  believed  that  this  was  the  only 
country  on  which  civil  liberty  had  ever  dawned,  that 
everywhere  else  the  governments  were  tyrannies  and  the 
people  were  slaves,  and  that  the  only  danger  to  be  watched 
for  and  guarded  against  was  the  loss  of  liberty,  and,  worst 
of  all,  that  for  a  free  people  very  little  government  was 
required.  The  prevailing  idea  of  the  people  was  that  by 
their  example  they  were  to  become  the  emancipators  of  all 
the  world.  They  vastly  overestimated  themselves.  They 
read  almost  incessantly  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
They  breathed  in  its  inflations.  They  became  intoxicated 
with  its  spirit.  They  looked  with  ignorant  contempt  on 
other  nations.  There  was  really  no  more  impracticable 
or  unamiable  specimen  of  civilized  humanity  to  be  found 
on  earth  than  the  free  and  independent  American  of  the 
first  five  and  twenty  years  after  the  close  of  the  war  of 
separation.  By  what  agencies  were  such  a  people  at  length 
induced  to  surrender  the  loose  freedom  of  the  Confed- 
eration, and  place  themselves  under  the  obligations  and 
restraints  of  the  Constitution?  It  is  to  this  question 
that  Mr.  Bancroft  devotes  several  of  the  best  chapters 
of  his  work. 

First  of  all,  he  reminds  the  reader  that  there  still  lin- 
gered in  the  country  certain  uniting  influences,  which 
kept  the  States  from  final  separation  far  more  than  their 
written  articles  of  agreement.  Among  these  the  most 
important  were  :  1.  A  prevailing  attachment  to  the  Union. 
In  spite  of  the  common  conceits  of  state  sovereignty,  the 
idea  of  the  nation  did  not  cease  to  stimulate  and  delight 
the  minds  of  the  people.  2.  The  Articles  of  Confedera- 
tion had  specially  provided  for  inter-citizenship  among 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.     277 

the  States,  which  had  done  much  to  promote  intercourse 
and  to  diminish  the  importance  of  state  lines.  3.  More 
powerful  than  either  of  these  was  the  interest  which  was 
felt  by  the  States  in  the  vast  territory  which  had  been 
surrendered  to  the  United  States,  and  had  become  the 
common  property  of  the  American  people.  The  feeling 
had  become  general  that  every  citizen  had  a  right  to  the 
benefits  of  this  magnificent  national  domain,  which  would 
be  forfeited  by  a  separation  of  the  States.  4.  The  hos- 
tile commercial  policy  of  England  also  greatly  tended  to 
strengthen  the  sentiment  of  nationality.  The  undisguised 
purpose  of  her  ministry  had  been  to  divide  the  Confedera- 
tion. They  did  not  believe  that  it  could  last  long,  and 
they  sought  to  hasten  its  overthrow,  expecting  it  to  be 
dissolved  into  separate  republics,  like  those  of  Greece 
and  Italy.  The  treatment  the  Confederation  received 
from  England  helped  to  prevent  this  result  and  to  hold 
it  together. 

But  agencies  such  as  these  were  effective  merely  for 
delaying  or  hindering  separation.  They  were  of  them- 
selves wholly  insufficient  for  working  the  radical  change 
that  was  needed  in  the  opinions  and  modes  of  thought  of 
the  people.  Coincident  with  these,  however,  were  more 
positive  influences,  exerted  by  the  foremost  minds  of  the 
country,  which  had  long  been  slowly  working  out  the  prep- 
aration that  was  required.  Foremost  among  these  was 
the  personal  authority  of  Washington.  The  Confedera- 
tion had  scarcely  been  submitted  to  the  States,  certainly 
it  had  not  been  adopted  by  them  all,  before  he  pointed 
out  its  inherent  and  fatal  weaknesses.  No  man  in  the 
country  had  suffered  as  Washington  had  suffered  from 
the  incompetency  and  inefficiency  of  Congress.  He  never 
lost  an  opportunity  of  setting  forth  the  necessity  of  a 
stronger  government  for  the  republic.  In  his  Farewell 
Address  to  the  army  he  had  urged  every  officer  and  every 


278  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

soldier  to  use  their  influence  in  securing  a  change.  He 
had  done  the  same  in  his  Address  to  the  Governors  of  the 
Several  States,  at  the  close  of  the  war.  la  subsequent 
years  he  appears  to  have  written  scarcely  a  letter  to  any 
public  man  in  which  he  did  not  advert  to  the  engrossing 
subject.  Indeed,  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  how  any  single 
man  could  have  done  more  to  present  to  his  countrymen 
the  perils  that  threatened  the  republic  from  the  weakness 
of  the  Confederation. 

Next  to  Washington,  Alexander  Hamilton  was  un- 
doubtedly the  most  efficient  advocate  and  promoter  of 
the  change.  He  shared  all  the  views  of  his  great  leader, 
and  he  thought  even  more  profoundly  on  the  manner  in 
which  the  defects  of  the  government  were  to  be  remedied. 
Mr.  Bancroft  makes  less  mention  of  his  services  in  this 
respect  than  might  naturally  have  been  expected,  —  pos- 
sibly for  the  reason  that  Hamilton,  after  the  war,  was  but 
little  in  public  life.  He  left  Congress  because  he  could 
do  nothing  in  that  body.  He  was,  however,  a  member  of 
the  Convention,  but  on  the  withdrawal  of  his  two  asso- 
ciates the  vote  of  New  York  was  lost  on  the  questions 
which  subsequently  arose.  But  his  clear  views  of  the 
strength  which  the  government  ought  to  possess,  as  they 
were  put  forth  on  many  public  occasions,  and  embodied 
with  persuasive  force  in  several  series  of  articles  in  the 
journals  of  the  time,  attracted  the  attention  of  the  whole 
country  more  than  any  other  publications  on  the  subject. 
And  when  the  Constitution  was  framed  and  submitted  to 
the  conventions  of  the  States,  he  wrote  in  its  defense  and 
explanation  nearly  all  of  those  masterly  papers  now 
known  as  the  "  Federalist,"  and  in  every  other  way  gave 
his  constant  efforts  to  securing  its  adoption. 

Mr.  Madison  was  more  conspicuous  in  the  Convention 
than  Mr.  Hamilton,  and  undoubtedly  did  more  to  shape 
the  details  of  the  Constitution,  and  he  receives  much 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.     279 

stronger  applause  from  Mr.  Bancroft.  He  certainly  de- 
serves to  be  ranked  among  the  foremost  leaders  of  the 
movement  towards  a  better  government.  Jefferson  and 
John  Adams  were  absent  from  the  country,  but  many 
others  might  be  named  who  contributed  their  full  share  to 
the  work  of  bringing  about  the  deliverance  of  the  country 
from  the  dominion  of  its  own  follies  and  conceits.  But 
even  after  a  change  was  seen  to  be  indispensable  there 
was  little  agreement  as  to  what  the  change  ought  to  be, 
and  neither  Congress  nor  any  one  of  the  States  was  ready 
to  take  the  first  step.  In  this  condition  of  affairs  it  for- 
tunately happened  that  commissioners  from  Maryland  and 
Virginia  met  at  Mount  Vernon  to  adjust  the  long-stand- 
ing difficulties  between  these  two  States  relating  to  the 
navigation  of  Chesapeake  Bay  and  its  tributary  rivers.  It 
was  one  of  a  large  class  of  controversies  between  States 
with  which  the  country  was  afflicted.  The  agreement  of 
the  commissioners  was  adopted  by  Maryland  in  Decem- 
ber, 1785,  and  in  communicating  its  action  to  Virginia 
the  legislature  proposed  that  all  the  States  should  be  in- 
vited "  to  meet  and  regulate  the  commerce  of  the  country." 
Virginia  readily  acceded  to  the  proposal,  and  arranged  a 
meeting  to  be  held  at  Annapolis  in  September,  1786. 
This  meeting  was  attended  only  by  Virginia,  Maryland, 
Delaware,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York, 
though  delegates  were  appointed  by  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  and  New  Hampshire,  but  failed  to  attend.  The 
manifesto  of  this  Convention,  prepared  by  Hamilton,  pro- 
posed still  another  step :  that  the  States  there  represented 
should  urge  all  the  other  States  to  meet  with  them  in 
Philadelphia  on  the  second  Monday  of  the  following  May, 
to  consider  and  to  report  to  Congress  what  further  pro- 
visions were  needed  to  render  the  Articles  of  Confedera- 
tion adequate  to  the  exigencies  of  the  Union.  Madison 
immediately  secured  the  unanimous  approval  of  the  Vir- 


280  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

ginia  legislature,  and  the  Governor  transmitted  its  action 
to  Congress.  But  that  body  was  unwilling  to  act  on  the 
recommendation  of  a  State.  After  considerable  delay, 
however,  when  delegates  had  been  chosen  by  several 
States,  it  adopted  an  independent  resolution,  calling  a 
convention  to  meet  at  the  same  place  and  on  the  same 
day,  but  without  reference  to  what  had  been  done  either 
at  Annapolis  or  in  Virginia.  Thus  the  object  was  ac- 
complished, and  Congress  seemed  to  originate  the  mea- 
sure which  Virginia  had  forced  upon  its  attention. 

According  to  the  dilatory  habits  of  the  time,  the  Con- 
vention did  not  have  a  quorum  till  more  than  two  weeks 
after  the  appointed  day.  Its  members,  like  those  of  Con- 
gress, were  chosen  by  the  state  legislatures,  for  no  distinct 
idea  of  popular  sovereignty  had  yet  been  developed  in 
American  affairs.  They  were,  however,  wisely  chosen, 
for  among  them  were  the  ablest  and  most  experienced 
statesmen  of  the  country.  Washington  was  President, 
and  Franklin,  at  the  age  of  eighty-four,  was  the  senior 
member.  Many  of  them  had  made  special  studies  of  the 
great  masters  of  jurisprudence,  in  order  to  be  qualified 
for  the  work  before  them.  There  was  among  them  the 
utmost  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  what  the  Convention 
ought  to  do ;  whether  merely  to  amend  the  Confederation 
in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  or  to  frame  an  entirely  new 
government  with  powers  hitherto  unrecognized  in  the  re- 
public. The  task  which  necessity  demanded,  and  which 
it  really  performed,  was  one  of  surpassing  difficulty.  It 
was  to  frame  a  new  constitution  for  a  federal  republic,  — 
the  most  complex  form  of  civil  society.  To  found  a  mon- 
archy would  have  been  comparatively  easy,  had  there  been 
any  material  for  such  a  government  and  a  public  opinion 
that  would  make  it  possible.  The  work  to  be  done,  in 
its  essential  peculiarities,  was  then  without  a  parallel  in 
history.  All  the  existing  governments  of  the  world  were 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.     281 

growths,  —  not  one  was  an  original  creation,  —  and  they 
could  afford  no  incidental  suggestions  in  what  was  here 
to  be  done.  If  we  add  to  this  the  clashing  opinions  of 
the  country,  the  existence  of  negro  slavery  as  a  local  in- 
stitution, the  crude  ideas  of  government,  the  false  theories 
of  liberty,  the  jealousies  and  strifes  that  prevailed  among 
the  States,  with  all  the  bad  precedents  and  bad  influences 
of  the  Confederation,  the  probabilities  of  success  appear 
exceedingly  small. 

The  Convention  sat  with  closed  doors,  and  secrecy  was 
enjoined  on  its  members.  At  its  opening  session  the  Vir- 
ginia delegation  presented  to  the  body  through  Gover- 
nor Randolph  a  plan  for  a  new  constitution,  which  had 
been  prepared  by  Madison  as  a  basis  for  discussion.  In 
its  essential  features  it  was  mildly  national  rather  than 
federal.  Other  plans  were  subsequently  submitted,  but 
the  Virginia  plan,  more  than  any  other,  though  with  a 
multitude  of  modifications,  was  the  groundwork  of  the 
Constitution.  The  first  great  question  which  it  raised 
was  whether  the  States  should  be  on  an  equality  in  all 
respects,  as  they  were  in  the  Confederation.  This  ques- 
tion, with  all  that  it  involved,  was  debated  with  the  ut- 
most acrimony,  and  the  votes  that  were  taken  repeatedly 
showed  the  same  number  of  States  on  either  side,  with 
others  divided  and  not  voting.  At  the  end  of  thirty-four 
days  the  Convention  had  made  no  progress,  and  members 
despairingly  wrote  to  their  friends  that  nothing  could  be 
done.  At  this  juncture,  Franklin  made  his  famous  speech, 
in  which  he  said,  "The  wit  of  man  is  exhausted.  I  firmly 
believe  that,  unless  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they  labor 
in  vain  that  try  to  build  it,"  and  proposed  that  the  daily 
sessions  be  opened  with  prayers.  The  whole  matter  was 
then  referred  to  a  committee,  and  through  their  agency 
the  great  compromises  of  the  Constitution  were  prepared 
and  adopted,  and  positive  nationality  became  its  pervad- 


282  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

ing  character.  Had  this  not  been  secured,  the  Conven- 
tion would  have  ended  in  ignominious  failure. 

But  after  all  these  great  adjustments  had  been  made, 
there  still  remained  the  stupendous  work  of  devising  the 
machinery  by  which  these  essential  agreements  should  be 
carried  into  effect.  It  is  here  quite  as  much  as  in  the 
agreements  themselves  that  the  real  statesmanship  of  the 
Convention  is  displayed.  The  compromises  of  the  Con- 
stitution were  dictated  by  the  necessities  of  the  country. 
The  Convention  was  compelled  to  accept  them.  Not  so 
with  the  innumerable  contrivances  and  adjustments  which 
are  designed  to  combine  the  different  branches  of  the 
government  into  a  harmonious  whole,  to  give  efficiency 
to  every  part,  and  to  concentrate  the  united  strength  of 
the  whole  for  the  enactment  and  maintenance  of  law,  and 
for  the  defense  alike  of  the  Union  and  of  every  State. 
Arrangements  like  these  in  other  countries  have  slowly 
grown  up  in  the  lapse  of  ages.  Here  they  had  to  be 
created  in  advance,  and  in  doing  this  the  far-seeing  states- 
men of  the  Convention  achieved,  perhaps,  the  most  won- 
derful part  of  their  work. 

The  sessions  of  the  Convention  had  begun  on  the  14th 
of  May ;  they  terminated  on  the  17th  of  September.  For 
several  of  the  closing  weeks,  the  Constitution,  which  had 
been  substantially  agreed  upon,  was  in  the  hands  of  com- 
mittees, who  perfected  its  provisions  aud  gave  the  final 
touches  to  its  forms  of  expression.  Its  closing  article 
provided  that  its  ratification  by  the  Convention,  chosen  by 
the  people  of  nine  States,  should  be  "  sufficient  for  the 
establishment  of  the  Constitution  between  the  States  so 
ratifying."  On  the  17th  of  September  it  was  finally 
adopted  by  the  delegations  of  the  eleven  States  that  were 
represented  in  the  Convention,  though  three  conspicuous 
members  refused  to  give  it  their  signatures.  Many  did 
not  believe  that  it  would  be  accepted  by  eleven  States  ; 


CONSTITUTION   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.      283 

some  perhaps  did  not  desire  it  to  be.  The  general  feel- 
ing1, however,  was  that  they  had  done  better  than  they 
anticipated,  and  the  best  that  was  possible.  Mr.  Ban- 
croft says :  "  The  members  were  awestruck  at  the  result 
of  their  councils ;  the  Constitution  was  a  nobler  work  than 
any  one  of  them  had  believed  it  possible  to  devise.  They 
all  on  that  day  dined  together  and  took  a  cordial  leave  of 
each  other.  Washington  at  an  early  hour  of  the  evening 
retired  '  to  meditate  on  the  momentous  work  which  had 
been  executed.' ' 

The  instrument  was  now  in  the  hands  of  the  people, 
who  were  to  choose  the  state  conventions.  It  was  imme- 
diately assailed  with  a  violence  and  fury  which  it  is  now 
difficult  to  explain.  It  certainly  sprang  from  no  well- 
grounded  objections  to  the  Constitution  itself.  The  new 
government  was  denounced  in  advance  as  a  rich  man's 
government,  an  aristocracy,  a  gilded  bait,  a  triple-headed 
monster,  a  stepping-stone  to  monarchy,  and  by  a  multi- 
tude of  similar  names  suggestive  of  the  low  tone  of  the 
popular  mind  and  the  narrow  range  of  the  popular  intelli- 
gence. Delaware  was  the  first  to  accept  the  Constitution, 
which  she  did  unanimously  on  December  6.  Pennsyl- 
vania adopted  it  on  December  12.  These  were  followed 
by  New  Jersey,  Georgia,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts, 
Maryland,  South  Carolina,  and  New  Hampshire,  on  June 
21,  1788.  Nine  States  had  now  adopted  the  Constitution, 
the  number  required  for  its  establishment.  But  there  con- 
tinued to  be  great  anxiety  among  its  friends.  It  was  easy 
to  see  that  without  Virginia,  and  especially  without  New 
York,  the  Union  would  still  be  dangerously  incomplete. 
Four  days  later,  on  June  25,  Virginia  gave  her  ratifica- 
tion, and  New  York  on  July  26,  by  a  majority  of  two 
votes.  North  Carolina  did  not  adopt  it  till  November, 
1789,  eight  months  after  the  inauguration  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  Khode  Island  not  till  May,  1790,  when  the  gov- 


284  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

ernment  had  been  in  full  operation  more  than  a  year, 
and  then  by  a  majority  of  two  votes.  The  great  charac- 
ter of  Washington  at  the  head  of  the  nation  had  already 
done  much  to  subdue  the  opposition  of  these  dilatory 
States,  and  to  draw  the  whole  people  towards  a  govern- 
ment of  which  he  was  the  head.  Mr.  Bancroft  does  not 
state  it  too  strongly  when  he  writes  that  "  but  for  him 
the  country  could  not  have  achieved  its  independence  ;  but 
for  him  it  could  not  have  formed  the  Union ;  and  now 
but  for  him  it  could  not  have  set  the  federal  government 
in  successful  motion."  J 

Nowhere  was  hostility  to  the  Constitution  so  bitter  as 
in  Rhode  Island  and  New  York.  These  were  the  only 
States  in  which  the  passions  of  the  people  broke  out  in 
riotous  proceedings.  Rhode  Island,  especially,  clung  to 
the  Confederation  with  a  tenacity  unequaled  in  any  other 
State.  The  people  of  her  rural  districts  seemed  to  de- 
light in  its  impotence  and  inefficiency,  for  it  left  them 
undisturbed  in  the  delusions  of  their  paper  money,  with 
which  they  sought  to  pay  their  debts.  Her  legislature, 
under  the  control  of  its  rural  majority,  had  refused  to 
send  delegates  to  the  Convention,  giving  as  a  reason  that 
it  had  no  power  to  do  so,  inasmuch  as  the  delegates  to 
Congress,  since  March,  1777,  had  been  chosen  by  the  peo- 
ple of  the  State,  which  was  true.  It  refused  on  seven 
different  occasions  to  call  a  convention  of  the  State  to 
act  on  adopting  the  Constitution,  but  submitted  it  to  the 
people  in  their  town  meetings,  a  mode  of  procedure 
wholly  at  variance  with  the  requirements  of  the  instru- 
ment itself.  Five  of  these  seven  occasions  were  after  it 
had  been  adopted  by  nine  States,  and  was  therefore  sure 
to  go  into  effect,  and  two  were  after  it  had  really  gone 
into  effect,  and  the  federal  government  had  been  organ- 
ized according  to  its  provisions.  The  State  also  continued 
1  Vol.  ii.  p.  360. 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.     285 

to  vote  for  delegates  to  the  Confederation  Congress,  just 
as  if  that  body  had  not  been  superseded.  Like  the  Eng- 
lish Jacobites,  she  still  clung  to  the  old  dynasty  after  it  had 
been  destroyed.  The  reason  which  she  gave  for  this  dis- 
play of  irrational  and  offensive  oddity  was  that  the  State, 
though  she  stood  alone,  was  bound  by  the  Articles  of  Con- 
federation till  they  were  legally  set  aside.  The  real  rea- 
son was  that  the  men  then  in  power  were  too  ignorant 
and  narrow  to  understand  the  obvious  interests  of  the 
State,  and  so  wedded  to  their  paper  money  that  they  could 
not  be  induced  to  do  anything  which  would  threaten  its 
overthrow.  The  State  was  treated  with  the  utmost  in- 
dulgence by  the  new  government.  On  the  petition  of  the 
merchants  of  Providence,  Newport,  and  Bristol,  Congress 
fixed  a  day  so  late  as  the  15th  of  January,  1790,  as  the 
time  when  her  vessels  must  be  treated  as  foreign  in  the 
ports  of  the  United  States.  The  time  was  afterwards  ex- 
tended to  the  15th  of  April ;  but  they  were  not  molested 
even  then,  for  the  legislature,  after  its  seven  refusals,  had 
now  called  a  convention  to  act  upon  the  Constitution.  A 
little  longer  delay,  however,  would  have  subjected  her 
citizens  to  very  great  embarrassments  and  sufferings.  A 
continued  persistence  in  her  experiment  of  separate  exist- 
ence as  an  independent  State  would  have  led,  of  necessity, 
to  her  dismemberment,  and  destruction. 

Her  conduct  at  this  time  of  infatuation  brought  an 
injury  to  her  character  from  which  the  State  did  not  soon 
recover.  She  was  visited  with  contempt  and  every  kind  of 
obloquy.  Her  name  became  a  by-word  in  nearly  every 
part  of  the  country,  and  it  was  not  till  another  generation 
had  arisen  that  she  began  to  recover  from  the  conse- 
quences of  the  bad  influences  which  then  controlled  her 
action  as  a  State. 

The  conduct  of  New  York  was  scarcely  less  discredit- 
able and  vastly  more  harmful  than  that  of  Rhode  Island. 


286  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

She  had  persistently  disregarded  the  maritime  rights  of 
her  nearest  neighbors,  New  Jersey  and  Connecticut,  and 
had  long  been  the  centre  of  an  unyielding  and  reckless 
opposition  to  every  measure  that  was  designed  to  give  to 
the  government  the  control  either  of  revenues  or  of  com- 
merce. She  sent  only  three  delegates  to  the  Convention. 
Two  of  these  were  determined  anti-Federalists,  and  they 
withdrew  so  soon  as  that  body  decided  to  frame  a  Con- 
stitution, and  not  to  amend  the  Articles  of  Confederation. 
The  remaining  delegate,  most  fortunately  for  the  State 
and  for  the  country,  was  Alexander  Hamilton.  He  could 
not  give  the  vote  of  his  State,  but  he  did  give  the  whole 
weight  of  his  commanding  influence  and  his  great  abil- 
ities to  the  success  of  the  Constitution,  and  to  him  its 
final  adoption  by  New  York  is  mainly  to  be  ascribed.  Its 
foremost  opponent  was  Governor  George  Clinton,  who 
presided  in  the  state  convention  and  controlled  a  large 
majority  of  its  members.  But  neither  he  nor  his  fol- 
lowers dared  wholly  to  reject  it.  This  would  not  only 
have  destroyed  the  union  of  the  States,  but  it  would  have 
compelled  New  York  to  maintain  an  army  and  a  navy  in 
order  to  preserve  the  commercial  supremacy  which  she 
had  already  attained.  New  York,  no  more  than  Rhode 
Island,  could  prosper  out  of  the  Union.  The  aim  of  the 
opposition,  therefore,  was  to  embarrass  the  question  as 
much  as  possible.  They  proposed  a  multitude  of  amend- 
ments, and  sought  to  make  their  incorporation  into  the 
Constitution  a  condition  of  its  adoption  by  the  State,  and 
at  the  same  time  they  voted  to  invite  all  the  States  to 
meet  in  a  second  convention  for  framing  another  Consti- 
tution. The  Federalists  were  alarmed  at  the  situation. 
Hamilton  was  their  acknowledged  leader.  For  months  he 
had  given  his  days  and  nights  to  the  success  of  the  Con- 
stitution. He  had  organized  a  system  of  rapid  communi- 
cation among  its  friends  in  every  State.  He  published  the 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.     287 

successive  numbers  of  the  "  Federalist."  He  wrote  many 
letters.  Swift  riders  brought  him  intelligence  from  New 
England,  which,  by  others  equally  swift,  he  dispatched 
to  Madison,  in  Virginia  or  in  Congress.  To  him  Ham- 
ilton now  submitted  the  question  whether  any  concession 
ought  to  be  made  as  to  a  conditional  adoption.  Mad- 
ison immediately  replied  that  a  conditional  adoption  is 
not  an  adoption.  The  crisis  was  one  of  great  difficulty 
and  danger.  Hamilton,  however,  and  his  associates  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  the  call  for  another  national  convention 
and  the  vote  for  adoption,  with  the  words  "  on  condition 
that "  changed  to  "  in  full  confidence  that,"  both  united 
in  a  single  resolution.  This  finally  passed  the  Convention 
by  a  majority  of  two  votes,  the  same  majority  as  in  Rhode 
Island,  and  even  then  it  was  something  less  than  an  un- 
qualified adoption.  But  the  qualifying  clause  was  happily 
made  nugatory  by  the  amendments  immediately  recom- 
mended by  Congress  and  adopted  by  the  States,  in  the 
mode  prescribed  by  the  Constitution  itself.  Thus,  as  it 
were,  against  the  determination  of  her  own  people  and 
their  representatives,  did  the  great  State  of  New  York 
ratify  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  and  it  is  to 
be  observed  that  neither  here  nor  in  Rhode  Island,  the 
two  States  in  which  the  vote  was  the  smallest,  nor  in  any 
other  State,  did  there  appear  the  slightest  dissatisfaction 
with  what  had  been  done.  The  defeated  party  was  as 
submissive  to  the  new  government  as  the  triumphant 
party.  The  members  of  the  one  immediately  became  as 
loyal  as  those  of  the  other  ;  and  both  were  equally  ready 
to  accept  the  offices  and  to  discharge  the  responsibilities 
which  the  Constitution  had  called  into  existence. 

I  have  thus  suggested  the  outlines  of  the  momentous 
moral  and  social  as  well  as  political  transformation  which 
was  wrought  in  the  minds  of  the  American  people  at  the 
period  of  the  formation  and  adoption  of  the  Constitution. 


288  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

The  magnitude  and  the  results  of  this  change  amazed 
even  those  who  had  labored  most  earnestly  to  bring  it 
about.  It  transcended  their  utmost  expectations.  It  was 
as  if  the  nation  had  been  born  into  a  new  political  life. 
A  new  blood  seemed  to  flow  in  its  veins  and  new  joys 
glowed  in  its  heart.  In  the  place  of  dangerous  political 
theories,  of  narrow  ideas,  of  local  prejudices  and  inflated 
political  conceits,  there  immediately  sprang  up  national 
sentiments,  comprehensive  interests,  patriotic  aspirations. 
The  people  of  the  States  began  to  abandon  their  notions 
of  state  sovereignty,  their  groundless  alarms  lest  a  new 
tyranny  should  be  imposed  upon  them,  and,  in  obedience 
to  the  voice  of  the  public  reason,  they  accepted  a  frame  of 
government  whose  essential  features  were  directly  repug- 
nant to  all  that  they  had  been  struggling  to  secure.  There 
is  no  other  proceeding  recorded  in  Mr.  Bancroft's  twelve 
volumes  of  American  history  which  does  so  much  credit  to 
American  character.  The  resistance  to  British  taxation, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  war  of  separation,  all 
were  less  remarkable  than  the  result  of  this  great  struggle 
between  the  good  and  the  evil  tendencies  then  embosomed 
in  the  republic.  In  other  struggles  they  had  won  victories 
over  their  enemies  ;  in  this  they  conquered  themselves. 
Before  they  had  contended  for  independence  and  for 
greater  liberty ;  now  they  gave  up  a  portion  of  their  in- 
dependence and  placed  wholesome  restraints  on  their 
liberty  —  a  vastly  higher  achievement,  as  self-denial  is 
always  higher  than  self-indulgence. 

Professor  Seelye,  in  his  lectures  on  "  The  Expansion  of 
England,"  refers  to  the  separation  of  the  American  colo- 
nies as,  perhaps,  the  event  foremost  in  importance  in  the 
history  of  the  English  race,  for  it  called  into  being  another 
Britain  greater  than  the  island  "  that  rules  the  waves." 
But  of  how  little  importance  might  this  separation  have 
proved  to  be,  had  the  Constitution  not  been  formed,  or, 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.     289 

when  formed,  had  it  not  been  accepted,  and  the  loose  and 
disjointed  union  of  the  Confederation  been  left  to  shape 
the  then  dubious  destiny  of  the  American  States  !  Both 
Spain  and  Portugal  had  colonies  in  America,  and  like 
those  of  England,  they  too  separated  from  the  mother 
country.  But  no  greater  Spain  or  greater  Portugal  had 
sprung,  or  is  likely  ever  to  spring,  from  them.  It  is  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  —  the  guarantee  of 
liberty  regulated  by  law,  combining  in  harmonious  rela- 
tions the  local  governments  of  many  separate  States  with 
the  central  government  of  the  single  united  nation  —  self- 
governing  provinces  wrought  together  in  a  self-governing 
union,  —  it  is  this  solution  of  the  most  difficult  of  prob- 
lems that  has  given  paramount  and  ever-increasing  impor- 
tance to  the  separate  nationality  of  the  English  colonies 
in  America,  and  has  secured  for  the  widespread  English 
race  a  leadership  among  mankind  such  as  otherwise  it 
could  not  have  attained.  Great  Britain  now  looks  proudly 
abroad  over  another  Britain  vastly  greater  than  herself, 
but  still  an  expansion  of  herself  and  of  the  civilization 
which  she  represents,  spreading  over  nearly  one  quarter  of 
the  planet.  Of  the  greater  part  of  this  expanded  Britain 
she  is  still  the  mistress  and  ruler.  If  she  is  able  to  keep 
together  and  govern  this  stupendous  empire,  she  must  do 
it  very  largely,  as  her  own  statesmen  admit,  by  employing 
the  methods  and  following  the  example  furnished  by  the 
Constitution  made  by  her  American  children  nearly  a  hun- 
dred years  ago,  of  which  Mr.  Gladstone  has  given  his  esti- 
mate in  the  following  familiar  sentence,  inscribed  by  Mr. 
Bancroft  on  the  first  page  of  each  of  his  volumes :  "  As 
the  British  Constitution  is  the  most  subtle  organism  which 
has  proceeded  from  progressive  history,  so  the  American 
Constitution  is  the  most  wonderful  work  ever  struck  off  at 
a  given  time  by  the  brain  and  purpose  of  man." 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION  AMONG 
NATIONS.1 

As  I  rise  to  read  the  paper  of  the  evening  before  this 
Historical  Society,  I  cannot  forbear,  first  of  all,  to  give 
some  brief  utterance  to  the  sense  of  loss  which  we  all  ex- 
perience in  the  death  of  our  distinguished  associate,  Pro- 
fessor Diman.  To  me  it  is  like  a  personal  bereavement. 
Elsewhere,  and  on  other  occasions,  his  character  will  be 
delineated  as  a  scholar,  a  professor  in  the  university,  a 
Christian  minister,  and  an  eminent  citizen.  Here  we 
think  of  him  in  his  connection  with  this  Society,  and  the 
pursuits  in  which  we  are  engaged.  We  all  recall  his 
readiness  to  instruct  us  by  his  papers,  and  to  contribute 
his  services  in  the  work  of  collecting  and  preserving  the 
materials  for  our  state  history.  We  remember,  too,  the 
volumes  pertaining  to  Rhode  Island  which  he  has  so  care- 
fully edited,  the  public  discourses  in  which  he  has  cele- 
brated our  local  anniversaries  and  the  characters  of  our 
distinguished  citizens,  and  above  all,  how  important  was 
his  influence  in  promoting  historical  studies,  in  his  capa- 
city as  professor  of  history  in  the  university.  The  pro- 
fessorship of  history  was  not  established  till  about  the 
time  of  his  graduation,  but  in  such  incidental  work  as  was 
then  done,  I  well  remember  the  taste  and  aptitude  for  this 
class  of  studies  which  he  evinced.  Twelve  years  later, 
when  the  professorship  became  vacant,  I  was  invited  by 
those  charged  with  making  the  appointment  to  name 

1  Read  before  the  Historical  Society  of  Rhode  Island,  March  9, 
1880. 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  291 

some  son  of  the  college  who  might  be  selected  to  fill  it, 
and  without  hesitation  I  named  Mr.  Diman,  then  settled 
as  a  minister  in  Brookline,  Mass.  It  was  a  well-consid- 
ered suggestion,  and  I  look  back  upon  it  with  proud  and 
perfect  satisfaction. 

He  entered  upon  his  work  in  the  university  in  the 
autumn  of  1864,  and  for  more  than  sixteen  years  he  has 
prosecuted  it  with  ever-growing  and  brilliant  success. 
His  instructions  embraced  the  long  period  which  has 
elapsed  since  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  were 
designed  to  explain  the  origin  and  formation  of  the  states 
of  modern  Europe,  and  to  trace  the  progress  of  modern 
civilization.  Upon  this  subject,  in  all  its  departments,  he 
had  gathered  large  stores  of  information  from  the  litera- 
ture of  many  languages.  But  it  is  not  learning  alone  that 
constitutes  the  true  qualification  for  a  professor  of  history. 
Professor  Diman  was  penetrated  with  that  comprehensive, 
liberal,  and  Christian  philosophy  which  looks  beyond  the 
facts  into  the  laws  that  govern  them,  which  searches  for 
the  hidden  meaning  of  the  changes  alike  in  states  and  in 
the  opinions  of  mankind,  and  which  in  the  long  sequence 
of  ages  recognizes  the  process  by  which  the  Divine  Ruler 
of  the  world  unfolds  the  destiny  of  man  and  society. 

He  worked  easily  and  cheerfully,  with  a  candid  and 
unbiased  spirit  which  imparted  itself  to  those  whom  he 
taught.  Nor  was  his  influence  or  his  work  confined  to 
the  university.  They  spread  themselves  over  the  commu- 
nity. He  taught  classes  of  ladies,  beginning  in  many 
cases  when  they  had  just  ceased  to  be  school-girls,  and 
going  on  after  they  had  become  women  and  heads  of 
families.  For  several  years,  also,  he  had  given  courses  of 
lectures  on  the  constitutional  history  of  the  United  States 
to  the  State  Normal  School,  which  were  received  with 
very  great  satisfaction  and  interest,  and  drew  large  assem- 
blies at  their  delivery. 


292  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

The  Usage  of  Asylum,  or,  as  it  is  styled  in  recent 
times,  the  Right  of  Asylum,  is  of  very  ancient  origin,  and 
is  very  widely  spread  among  mankind.  It  would  seem  to 
be  as  old  as  civil  society  itself,  and  it  has  prevailed  so 
extensively  in  early  periods  of  history  as  to  have  ac- 
quired a  special  and  mysterious  significance.  It  was  long 
associated  with  religion,  but  religion  seems  not  to  have 
been  the  source  from  which  it  sprang.  It  is  to  be  regarded 
rather  as  the  expression  of  a  sentiment  of  dissatisfaction, 
which  springs  spontaneously  in  the  minds  of  men,  with 
the  institutions  and  operations  of  all  human  justice,  — 
a  sentiment  which  revolts  from  the  taint  of  selfishness 
and  tyranny,  of  private  hostility  and  revenge,  that  so 
generally  affected  the  making  and  the  execution  of  all 
human  laws.  This  sentiment,  especially  in  early  ages, 
when  individual  rights  were  insecure,  created  a  certain 
sympathy  with  the  offender,  and  made  men  not  only  un- 
willing to  assist  in  his  arrest  and  punishment,  but  willing 
to  afford  him,  if  not  assistance,  at  least  some  folorn  oppor- 
tunity to  escape  the  penalties  he  had  brought  upon  him- 
self ;  to  open  for  him  some  place  of  refuge  in  which  he 
might  be  secure  from  the  seizure  of  those  who  pursued 
him  in  the  name  of  the  public  authority.  This  sentiment 
finds  less  to  justify  it  in  civilized  ages,  but  it  has  not  be- 
come wholly  extinct  even  in  the  most  civilized  countries. 
Religion  very  easily  took  this  usage  of  asylum  under  its 
own  sanction  and  care,  and  for  many  ages  it  was  associ- 
ated exclusively  with  religious  institutions.  Religion  thus 
proclaimed  that  no  criminal  should  be  taken  from  its  tem- 
ples or  altars,  or  any  of  its  sacred  places,  and  that  all  who 
had  found  a  refuge  in  these  places  should  be  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  civil  power,  at  least  till  their  cause  could  be 
examined  and  decided  upon  by  its  own  ministers,  acting 
under  the  sanction  of  the  divinity. 

The  oldest  historical  trace  of  this  usage  of  asylum  is 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  293 

found  among  the  Hebrews.  By  the  provisions  of  their 
laws  six  cities  were  especially  set  apart  as  cities  of  refuge, 
to  either  of  which  the  slayers  of  men  might  flee,  and  re- 
main beyond  the  reach  of  that  terrible  agent  of  Jewish 
justice,  the  avenger  of  blood.  The  temple,  also,  and  the 
altar  of  burnt-offerings  appear  to  have  afforded  the  same 
protection.  This  Hebrew  law  was  doubtless  only  a  formal 
recognition  of  the  custom  of  a  still  earlier  time,  —  an 
authoritative  declaration  of  a  sentiment  which  the  Jews 
had  long  shared  with  other  portions  of  mankind.  Its 
design,  its  effect  everywhere,  was  to  rescue  human  life 
from  the  violence  to  which  it  was  exposed  in  ages  when 
personal  passion  and  revenge  so  often  assumed  the  name 
of  justice,  and  usurped  the  authority  of  law. 

Among  the  early  Greeks  the  same  usage  prevailed. 
The  groves  and  temples,  and  all  places  sacred  to  the 
divinities,  were  made  asylums  for  criminals,  and  indeed 
for  persons  of  every  description  who  were  fleeing  from 
those  who  sought  to  injure  them.  No  punishment  could 
be  inflicted,  and  no  violence  of  any  kind  could  be  used, 
within  these  sacred  inclosures,  nor  could  any  one  be  taken 
from  them  by  force  to  be  punished  elsewhere.  In  later 
ages  different  temples  were  especially  designated  as  asy- 
lums for  different  classes  of  fugitives,  as  that  of  Diana  at 
Ephesus  for  fugitive  debtors,  and  that  of  Theseus  at  Ath- 
ens for  fugitive  slaves,  and  the  shrines  of  Mercury  every- 
where for  thieves.  Here  the  religious  idea  had  become 
conspicuous,  and  the  sacredness  of  the  place  seemed  to  be 
the  controlling  consideration.  The  fugitive  was  protected, 
in  appearance  at  least,  not  because  of  any  sympathy  which 
he  deserved,  but  rather  because  the  divinity  would  be 
offended  if  he  were  molested.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  humane  feeling  may  still  have  prompted  the  usage, 
and  that  religion  only  gave  it  its  sanction,  and  invested  it 
with  its  own  sacred  authority,  and  thus  made  it  more 
effective  in  its  benevolent  agency. 


294  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

With  equal  distinctness  is  the  same  usage  traceable 
among  the  early  Romans.  If  there  is  any  truth  in  the 
legends  recorded  by  Livy,  Romulus  had  scarcely  com- 
pleted the  walls  of  his  city,  when  he  made  it  an  asylum 
for  the  criminals  and  outcasts  of  all  Italy,  and  invited 
them  to  come  and  share  its  rising  fortunes.  There  was 
110  period  of  Roman  history,  from  the  days  of  the  earliest 
kings  to  those  of  the  latest  emperors,  when  the  various 
sacred  places  of  all  the  Roman  cities  were  not  constantly 
resorted  to  as  asylums ;  not  by  fugitives  from  justice 
alone,  but  also  by  those  who  sought  to  escape  from  every 
form  of  outrage  or  oppression.  The  usage  was  the  com- 
mon law  of  the  state  long  before  it  was  enacted  by  the 
senate  or  decreed  by  the  emperors.  Indeed,  it  was  so 
thoroughly  wrought  into  the  social  system,  that  it  at 
last  proved  to  be  difficult  for  either  senate  or  emperor 
to  modify  or  control  it.  The  right  of  asylum  became 
greatly  extended  as  the  sacred  spots  grew  more  numer- 
ous, and  as  nearly  all  the  divinities  of  the  world  one 
after  another  set  up  their  shrines  in  and  around  the  im- 
perial city.  After  the  empire  was  established,  the  stat- 
ues of  the  Ca3sars  were  made  to  rank  with  those  of  the 
gods,  and  criminals  who  were  able  to  touch  them,  or  reach 
the  inclosures  in  which  they  stood,  claimed  the  same  priv- 
ilege as  if  they  had  fled  to  a  temple,  or  to  the  wayside 
shrine  of  a  divinity. 

But  wholly  independent  of  any  influence  of  either  the 
laws  of  Moses  or  the  mythology  of  Greece  or  Rome,  the 
same  usage  of  asylum  also  appeared  among  the  Franks, 
the  Visigoths,  and  the  Germans,  on  their  settlement  in 
Western  Europe.  It  became  especially  conspicuous  in 
Lyons  and  Vienne,  and  in  some  German  cities  it  lingered, 
as  it  has  also  in  Edinburgh,  almost  to  our  own  times. 

A  prescriptive  institution  like  this  would  be  sure  to  be 
constantly  abused  by  those  who  resorted  to  it  to  escape 


ASYLUM   AND  EXTRADITION.  295 

the  penalties  of  the  law.  The  temples  of  the  gods  and 
the  sacred  places  of  religion  were  often  crowded  with  the 
guilty  and  the  depraved,  who  sought  to  place  themselves 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  public  prosecutor.  The  right  of 
asylum,  thus  perverted  from  its  original  uses,  was  often 
disregarded  by  the  civil  authorities,  and  well-known  crim- 
inals were  taken  from  its  protection  even  at  the  risk  of 
every  penalty  which  the  divinities  could  inflict.  This  is 
more  than  once  mentioned  in  the  Greek  annals.  In  Rome 
the  abuses  became  still  more  flagrant,  but  so  powerful 
were  the  priests,  and  so  superstitious  the  masses  of  the 
people,  that  for  many  generations  no  government  dared  to 
attempt  their  reformation.  Tiberius  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  who  succeeded  in  arresting  these  abuses,  and 
imposing  effectual  restrictions  on  the  usage  of  religious 
asylum.  He  was  able  to  accomplish  this  mainly  by  secur- 
ing a  wiser  and  juster  administration  of  the  laws,  and  by 
preventing,  to  a  great  extent,  the  wrongs  and  outrages 
which  this  usage  was  designed  to  remedy.  He  limited  it 
to  the  temples  and  altars  of  certain  divinities,  and  desig- 
nated certain  crimes  for  which  the  offender  could  not 
take  refuge  in  them.  He  narrowed  the  inclosures  within 
which  it  could  take  effect,  and  he  reduced  the  number  of 
asylums  in  all  the  cities.  The  abuses,  however,  returned, 
and  so  long  as  the  line  of  pagaji  emperors  lasted,  the  tem- 
ples of  the  gods  continued  to  offer  impunity  to  every  sort 
of  crime,  and  thereby  to  swell  the  dangerous  multitude 
of  the  lawless  and  the  dissolute. 

When  Christianity  established  itself  in  the  empire  and 
became  the  religion  of  the  state,  the  asylum  of  the  ancient 
•temples  was  immediately  transferred  to  the  churches. 
Christianity  had,  from  the  beginning,  been  the  religion  of 
the  poor  and  the  oppressed.  It  was  always  opposed  to 
violence  and  tumult  and  strife.  It  had  no  sympathy  with 
the  guilty.  It  did  not  care  to  shield  even  the  fugitive 


296  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

unless  lie  was  innocent.  For  a  long  time  the  change  was 
most  salutary.  But  the  empire  was  already  falling  to 
decay,  and  ere  long  the  barbarian  took  possession  of  its 
ruins.  In  the  universal  wreck  of  society  the  Christian 
Church  was  the  only  organized  and  vigorous  social  force 
that  survived,  the  only  one  that  possessed  either  the 
courage  or  the  ability  to  interpose  in  behalf  of  justice  and 
right  and  humanity.  The  duties  that  were  thus  forced 
upon  the  Church  contributed  to  make  her  ministers  the 
leaders  and  lawgivers  of  the  new  kingdoms  that  sprang 
up  in  Western  Europe.  In  every  one  of  them  the  right 
of  asylum,  or  of  sanctuary  as  it  had  now  come  to  be  called, 
was  fully  recognized,  and  the  churches  and  sacred  build- 
ings in  many  of  them  soon  began  to  be  the  resort  of  crim- 
inals and  fugitives  of  every  description.  The  ends  of 
justice  were  frequently  perverted  just  as  they  had  been  in 
the  days  of  the  heathen  temples.  Great  ecclesiastics 
clung  to  the  usage  just  as  the  pagan  priests  had  done  be- 
fore them,  and  it  was  as  much  abused  and  as  firmly  rooted 
as  it  had  ever  been.  Governments  complained  of  it,  but 
they  dared  not  destroy  it ;  the  best  men  of  the  Church 
were  ashamed  of  it  and  denounced  it,  but  they  could  not 
shut  their  eyes  to  the  manifold  benefits  that  were  mingled 
with  its  vast  abuses.  The  masses  of  the  people  demanded 
its  continuance  as  a  prescriptive  right,  which  in  those 
ages  of  depotism  and  violence  they  could  not  afford  to 
surrender.  It  had  its  root,  too,  in  the  universal  sentiment 
that  the  civil  authority  was  still  too  vengeful  and  arbi- 
trary, and  in  all  respects  too  barbarous,  to  be  allowed  an 
unobstructed  sway  over  the  interests  and  lives  of  those 
whom  it  assumed  to  govern. 

From  causes  like  these  this  ecclesiastical  sanctuary, 
though  restricted  by  the  later  popes  and  often  for  a  time 
disregarded  by  the  more  powerful  of  the  temporal  sover- 
eigns, continued  to  be  a  recognized  custom  in  every  state 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  297 

in  Europe  till  the  close  of  the  Middle  Age.  As  govern- 
ments became  more  fully  established,  and  more  humane 
and  just  in  their  administration,  the  necessity  for  such  a 
custom  was  diminished.  In  Italy,  where  the  Church  was 
powerful  and  the  State  was  weak,  it  prevailed  to  the 
greatest  extent,  and  survived  in  a  modified  form  down  to 
the  occupation  of  that  country  by  Napoleon  in  the  early 
part  of  the  present  century.  Indeed,  the  environs  of  the 
papal  palaces  and  the  houses  of  the  cardinals  at  Rome 
still  served  as  sanctuaries  for  fugitive  debtors  even  so 
lately,  as  1871  when  Victor  Emmanuel,  King  of  Italy, 
made  that  city  his  capital.  In  Germany  it  was  always 
more  limited  than  in  any  other  country,  and  it  wholly  dis- 
appeared there  with  the  coming  of  the  Reformation.  In 
England  it  was  in  full  force  till  the  reign  of  Edward  III. 
(1487),  when  it  was  first  restricted  by  a  papal  bull.  In 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth  the  privilege  was  denied  to  all  who 
were  charged  with  treason  and  several  other  crimes,  but 
was  continued  to  debtors.  In  that  reign  it  appears  to 
have  been  a  subject  of  unusual  popular  interest.  Shake- 
speare has  not  less  than  twelve  references  to  it,  and  in 
"  Richard  III."  he  makes  the  cardinal  express  the  import- 
ance which  was  attached  to  it  by  the  Church. 

"  God  in  heaven  forbid 
We  should  infringe  the  holy  privilege 
Of  blessed  sanctuary  !  not  for  all  this  land 
Would  I  be  guilty  of  so  deep  a  sin." 

It  survived  the  Reformation  for  the  benefit  of  debtors,  and 
was  not  finally  taken  from  the  churches  in  England  until 
1697,  in  the  reign  of  William  III.  The  latest  remnant 
of  it  in  Scotland  is  still  attached  to  the  palace  of  Holy- 
rood,  an  ancient  abbey,  which  retains  the  right  of  afford- 
ing temporary  sanctuary  to  certain  classes  of  innocent 
debtors. 


298  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

Wholly  independent  of  the  sanctuary  which  the  Church 
so  long  maintained  and  so  reluctantly  surrendered  was 
the  asylum  which  was  afforded  by  the  feudal  towns  dur- 
ing the  latter  portion  of  the  Middle  Age.  These  little 
hamlets  which  sprang  up  on  the  domains  of  the  great  pro- 
prietors, almost  from  their  origin,  made  it  a  point  to 
protect  the  fugitive  serfs  who  sought  refuge  at  their 
gates.  Once  within  the  limits  of  a  town,  the  right  of  the 
feudal  proprietor  over  them  was  sure  to  be  contested  by 
force.  At  length  it  was  wholly  abandoned.  This  usage 
of  asylum  came  to  be  allowed  by  common  consent,  and 
was  at  length  enforced  by  decrees  of  the  sovereigns,  who 
ordained  that  any  serf  residing  in  a  town  "  a  year  and  a 
day  "  should  be  free  and  entitled  to  be  ranked  among  the 
burghers.  The  operation  of  this  form  of  asylum  was 
always  beneficent.  It  afforded  a  way  of  escape  from 
feudal  servitude.  It  aided  largely  in  increasing  the 
population  and  strength  of  the  towns,  and  did  its  part  in 
creating  the  early  institutions  of  civil  liberty  in  Europe. 
It  had  not  any  necessary  connection  with  religion,  though 
it  may  have  often  invoked  the  sanction  of  the  Church.  It 
had  its  origin  in  a  love  of  freedom  and  a  hatred  of  feudal- 
ism, in  a  sentiment  of  humanity,  and  in  the  common  in- 
terest which  the  burghers  had  in  the  growth  of  their  free 
communities. 

But  this  usage  of  asylum  presents  itself  in  its  most 
imposing  form  in  the  relations  of  nations  with  one  an- 
other. When  the  temples  of  paganism,  the  churches  of 
Christianity,  and  the  cities  of  the  feudal  age  had  all 
ceased  to  afford  shelter  to  the  fugitive  in  his  own  country, 
he  has  in  later  times  found  it  in  a  foreign  land.  The 
states  of  Europe  long  sustained,  only  loose  relations  with 
each  other.  Their  boundaries  were  vaguely  denned 
They  were  often  at  war.  They  were  rivals  in  trade. 
They  were  jealous  of  each  other's  strength.  The  legal 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  299 

status  of  their  subjects  when  away  from  their  country 
was  uncertain  and  precarious.  But  in  spite  of  all  this 
the  first  instinct,  even  of  the  feeblest  sovereignty,  always 
was  to  resist  any  inroad  of  a  foreign  jurisdiction,  any 
exercise  of  a  foreign  authority  within  its  territory.  Un- 
der this  impulse  no  government  would  consent  to  sur- 
render a  fugitive  of  any  description  who  had  crossed  the 
border  and  sought  its  hospitality.  This  determination 
too  would  be  strengthened  by  considerations  of  humanity, 
by  a  sensitiveness  to  its  independence,  and  often,  perhaps, 
by  a  desire  to  add  to  its  population.  Nations,  too,  then  as 
now,  differed  in  freedom  and  in  the  justice  of  their  laws. 
Refuge  would  be  sought  and  emigrations  would  be  made 
from  the  less  free  to  the  more  free.  It  thus  became  a 
dictate  of  humanity  as  well  as  of  self-interest  that  every 
country  should  proclaim  itself  an  inviolable  asylum  for 
those  who  placed  themselves  under  its  protection.  The 
fugitive  and  the  exile,  the  victims  of  despotic  power,  of 
popular  hatred,  of  religious  persecution,  as  well  as  of 
legalized  justice,  were  all  safe  if  they  could  touch  the  soil 
of  a  foreign  country. 

This  international  asylum  had  its  origin,  no  doubt,  in 
mixed  motives,  as  do  all  human  institutions,  but  its  ne- 
cessity in  the  age  in  which  it  began  was  never  seriously 
questioned,  and  it  has  long  been  accepted  as  an  essential 
principle  of  public  law.  It  began  to  be  asserted  in  an 
age  of  intense  international  hatreds  and  of  fierce  religious 
wars,  —  in  an  age  when  popular  freedom  was  beginning 
its  long  struggle  with  prescriptive  despotism,  and  multi- 
tudes of  the  noblest  spirits  in  Western  Europe  hastened 
to  take  advantage  of  it.  Its  beneficent  agencies  have  given 
it  an  importance  and  a  sanctity  which  never  rested  on  the 
sanctuary  either  of  pagan  temple  or  Christian  church. 
The  French  Huguenots,  to  the  number  of  500,000,  hunted 
down  in  their  own  country,  sought  the  shelter  of  this 


300  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

asylum  in  foreign  lands.  The  persecuted  Puritans  of 
England,  in  like  manner,  fled  for  refuge  to  Switzerland 
and  Holland.  In  later  ages,  the  proscribed  scholar  and 
the  crushed  artisans  have  made  themselves  exiles  on  for- 
eign shores  in  order  to  secure  an  intellectual  or  industrial 
liberty  which  was  denied  to  them  at  home.  The  right  of 
asylum  has  proved  itself  equally  benignant  to  princes  and 
their  subjects.  How  many  a  monarch,  when  driven  from 
his  throne,  has  had  recourse  to  a  foreign  asylum  for  his 
own  life  and  those  of  his  family  and  followers !  The  last 
three  sovereigns  who  sat  upon  the  throne  of  France  saved 
themselves  from  the  revolutionary  fury  of  their  own  sub- 
jects only  by  seeking  the  inviolable  sanctuary  of  British 
protection  ;  and  there  have  been  periods  in  our  own  his- 
tory when  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  our  foreign-born 
population  were  exiles,  and  could  not  have  safely  returned 
to  the  country  of  their  birth. 

I  have  thus  illustrated  at  length  the  progress  and  the 
agencies  of  the  ancient  usage  or  right  of  asylum  in  the 
several  forms  in  which  it  has  prevailed.  It  is  evident,  I 
think,  that  in  each  one  of  its  forms  it  has  been  a  most 
beneficent  custom,  notwithstanding  the  perversions  and 
abuses  to  which  it  has  been  so  frequently  liable.  In  its 
origin  it  was  prompted  by  humane  instincts  in  the  minds 
of  men,  which  barbarism  did  not  wholly  obliterate,  and 
which  civilization  has  not  wholly  outgrown.  Within  the 
last  hundred  years  there  has  arisen  among  the  leading 
nations  of  the  world  another  practice,  of  an  entirely  op- 
posite character,  which  is  now  urging  its  claims  to  uni- 
versal recognition.  The  practice  I  refer  to  is  that  of 
surrendering  to  the  government  of  their  country  certain 
classes  of  the  criminals  who  have  taken  refuge  in  other 
countries.  It  is  obvious  that  this  usage  is,  in  its  operation, 
directly  at  variance  with  the  usage  of  asylum,  and  indeed 
that,  so  far  as  it  goes,  it  is  a  positive  infraction  of  the 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  301 

principle  on  which  asylum  rests.  It  is  claimed,  however, 
that,  in  the  present  relations  of  civilized  nations  with 
each  other,  both  justice  and  good  policy  require  this  in- 
fraction to  be  made,  and  the  right  of  asylum,  in  certain 
cases,  to  be  sacrificed  to  a  higher  end  which  cannot  other- 
wise be  attained.  Portions  of  the  world  the  most  widely 
separated  from  each  other  have  been  brought  near  to- 
gether by  the  modern  facilities  of  intercourse.  The  same 
line  of  railroad  now  often  runs  through  many  different 
countries.  Steam  navigation  has  bridged  the  broadest 
rivers,  and  has  closely  connected  the  opposite  shores  even 
of  the  Atlantic.  The  perpetrator  of  a  crime  may  now 
reach  a  distant  land  almost  before  his  guilt  is  discovered, 
if  he  has  friends  to  assist  him  and  money  to  pay  his  way. 
Besides  this,  criminals  are  no  longer,  as  they  once  were, 
obscure  and  powerless  members  of  the  community.  They 
often  hold  prominent  positions  of  public  or  private  trust ; 
they  have  the  control  of  wealth,  and  not  unfrequently  they 
are  even  able  to  dictate  the  terms  on  which  their  crimes 
may  be  compounded,  and  their  offense  is  permitted  to  go 
unpunished.  In  these  altered  circumstances  of  mankind, 
it  is  urged  tha.t,  unless  justice  is  to  be  set  aside  by  the 
increased  facilities  for  escaping  it,  the  right  of  asylum 
ought,  in  certain  cases  at  least,  to  be  waived,  and  the 
fugitive  criminal  who  has  taken  advantage  of  it  ought 
to  be  surrendered  for  trial  and  punishment  in  the  country 
whose  laws  he  has  violated.  This  surrender  has  come  to 
be  denominated  extradition. 

It  should  be  observed  that,  in  the  absence  of  a  special 
agreement  for  the  purpose,  a  surrender  of  this  kind  has 
not  hitherto  been  deemed  to  be  a  matter  of  obligation  ; 
nor  is  it  an  act  which  one  nation,  in  the  absence  of  agree- 
ment, has  any  right  to  demand  of  another.  The  prac- 
tice has  thus  far  been  regarded  as  purely  a  matter  of  in- 
ternational comity,  and  as  made  obligatory  only  by  the 


302  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

express  stipulations  of  treaties.  Such  treaties  are  now 
not  uncommon  among  nations.  They  always  specify  the 
crimes  for  which  the  extradition  of  the  criminal  may  be 
demanded,  the  nature  of  the  evidence  that  is  to  be  in- 
sisted on,  and  sometimes  other  particulars  relating  to  the 
manner  in  which  the  transaction  shall  be  accomplished. 
All  these  specifications  are  designed  to  secure  such  judi- 
cial carefulness  and  formality  as  ought  to  attend  so  grave 
a  proceeding. 

But  while,  as  a  general  rule,  fugitive  criminals  are  not 
surrendered,  save  in  accordance  with  treaty  agreements 
to  this  effect,  such  a  surrender  has  not  unfrequently  been 
made  as  an  act  of  comity  in  the  interests  of  justice,  in 
cases  where  no  such  agreement  existed.  It  is  certainly  an 
act  which  every  nation  has  a  right  to  do  if  it  chooses.  Two 
notable  instances  of  this  kind  have  occurred  in  our  own 
recent  history.  In  1864,  in  the  height  of  the  civil  war, 
the  government  of  Spain  represented  to  that  of  the  United 
States  that  a  Spaniard  named  Arguelles  had  committed 
a  crime  repugnant  alike  to  justice  and  humanity,  and  had 
escaped  to  New  York ;  and  that,  as  no  treaty  of  extradition 
existed  between  the  two  countries,  his  surrender  would 
be  accepted  as  an  act  of  special  comity  by  her  Catholic 
Majesty,  the  Queen  of  Spain.  Arguelles  was  an  officer  of 
the  Spanish  army,  and  also  deputy  governor  of  a  district 
in  the  island  of  Cuba.  In  this  latter  office,  he  was  espe- 
cially intrusted  with  rescuing  a  cargo  of  over  one  thou- 
sand African  slaves,  which  had  been  brought  into  a  Cuban 
port  contrary  to  the  laws  of  Spain.  He  seized  the  negroes 
and  held  them,  ostensibly  for  restoration  to  Africa,  and, 
for  his  success  in  doing  this,  received  a  large  reward  from 
his  government.  But  while  they  were  in  his  charge,  he 
conspired  with  others  and  made  sale  of  one  hundred  and 
forty-one  of  them  to  planters  in  Cuba,  representing  to  the 
government  that  they  had  died,  and  fled  to  New  York 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  303 

with  the  proceeds  of  his  treacherous  and  nefarious  traffic. 
The  President  of  the  United  States  immediately  caused 
the  man  to  be  arrested  and  delivered  to  an  agent  of  the 
Spanish  government,  by  whom  he  was  taken  back  to  Cuba 
for  trial.  The  surrender  called  forth  sharp  criticism ;  first, 
because  it  was  made  in  the  absence  of  any  treaty  agree- 
ment ;  and,  second,  because  it  was  not  attended  with  any 
judicial  inquiry  into  the  evidence  of  the  man's  guilt.  A 
resolution  of  censure  was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. This  resolution  called  forth  from  Secretary 
Seward  a  communication  which,  in  thoroughness  of  discus- 
sion, is  scarcely  surpassed  by  any  state  paper  which  the 
secretary  ever  produced.  It  secured  the  defeat  of  the 
resolution  by  a  very  large  majority.  It  is  unquestionably 
one  of  the  fullest  presentations  of  the  whole  subject  of 
extradition  that  can  be  found  in  the  annals  of  American 
diplomacy.  It  vindicated  completely  the  right  of  the 
President  to  make  the  surrender,  and  at  the  same  time 
demonstrated  his  obligation  to  make  it,  not  only  on  the 
ground  of  justice,  but  also  on  account  of  many  similar 
acts  of  comity  which  our  government  ha,d  asked  and  re- 
ceived from  Spain,  in  days  when  our  West  India  com- 
merce was  threatened  by  pirates  who  were  constantly  tak- 
ing refuge  in  her  colonial  ports.  We  were  also  in  the 
midst  of  a  civil  war  which  had  been  brought  upon  us  by 
slavery,  and  it  was  not  for  the  government  to  hesitate  in 
delivering  up  to  justice  a  fugitive  slave- trader.  The  vin- 
dication thus  made  has  been  accepted  as  complete,  so  far 
as  the  surrender  in  the  absence  of  a  treaty  was  concerned, 
but  I  think  it  has  been  generally  held  that  even  in  so  clear 
a  case,  there  should  have  been  a  formal  and  public  exami- 
nation, before  a  court,  of  the  evidence  on  which  the  man's 
guilt  was  made  to  rest. 

The  second  instance  to  which  I  have  referred  was  the 
surrender  of  Tweed,  the  famous  financial  politician  of  the 


304  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

city  of  New  York.  What  diplomatic  correspondence 
took  place  in  relation  to  this  proceeding  I  have  not  been 
able  to  ascertain.  The  fact  appears  to  be  that,  after 
many  tribulations  at  home  and  long  wanderings  abroad, 
he  landed  in  Spain.  Almost  as  soon  as  he  stepped  on 
shore  he  was  arrested  by  the  police,  on  the  evidence  of  his 
resemblance  to  certain  photographs  in  their  possession, 
and,  with  as  little  formality  as  had  attended  the  case  of 
Arguelles,  was  placed  on  board  a  national  vessel  of  the 
United  States,  brought  to  New  York,  and  delivered,  not 
to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  nor  to  that  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  but  to  the  municipal  authorities  of 
the  city.  The  Spanish  police  who  arrested  him,  it  is  said, 
thought  their  prisoner  was  the  abductor  of  Charley  Ross, 
and  they  regarded  him  with  great  abhorrence.  The  two 
cases  resemble  each  other  in  the  absence  of  all  judicial 
inquiry  as  to  the  evidence  of  guilt,  or  even  as  to  that  of 
personal  identity,  and  the  prompt  surrender  of  Tweed  has 
l>een  commonly  understood  to  have  been  an  act  of  reci- 
procity for  the  surrender  of  Arguelles. 

Concerning  treaties  of  extradition  as  they  now  exist, 
several  considerations  are  worthy  to  be  mentioned. 

I.  Such  treaties,  by  common  consent,  do  not  embrace 
political  offenders.  Whether  the  exception  is  inserted  in 
the  treaty  or  not,  no  nation  ever  fails  to  make  it  in  prac- 
tice. Such  offenders  always  remain  safe  in  the  asylum  to 
which  they  have  fled.  It  is,  however,  generally  conceded 
that,  while  enjoying  this  security,  they  are  not  to  be  per- 
mitted to  do  anything  to  harm  the  country  or  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country  from  which  they  have  escaped. 
They  are  not  to  make  their  new-found  home  the  theatre 
of  conspiracies  against  the  life  of  the  government,  or 
the  base  of  hostile  operations  of  any  kind.  In  1858,  the 
Emperor  Louis  Napoleon  came  near  being  assassinated  in 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  305 

the  streets  of  Paris  by  an  infernal  machine  prepared  by 
Orsini,  an  Italian,  who  was  one  of  a  large  company  of 
republican  refugees  residing  in  London.  The  French 
government  complained  to  that  of  Great  Britain  that  it 
was  harboring  assassins  within  its  asylum.  The  charge 
was  indignantly  repelled,  but  there  was  no  doubt  that  the 
conspiracy  to  murder  the  emperor  had  been  formed  by 
the  refugees  in  England,  and  that  they  were  continually 
plotting  against  other  governments  in  Europe.  The  min- 
istry, recognizing  their  obligation  to  prevent  such  crimes, 
introduced  in  the  House  of  Commons  a  bill  entitled  the 
"  Conspiracy  to  Murder  Bill."  The  principle  of  the  bill 
was  undoubtedly  right,  but  the  opposition  raised  the  cry 
of  French  dictation.  The  result  was  the  House  of  Com- 
mons refused  to  pass  it,  and  Lord  Palmerston,  one  of  the 
strongest  and  most  popular  of  ministers,  was  compelled  to 
resign.  The  bill,  however,  three  years  later,  became  a 
law  without  opposition. 

Indeed,  it  is  due  to  the  English  government  that  this 
exemption  of  political  refugees,  during  their  good  behav- 
ior, from  all  liability  to  extradition  has  come  to  be  a 
recognized  doctrine  of  international  law.  Nowhere  has 
the  great  principle  of  asylum  been  so  persistently  main- 
tained as  in  England,  and  that,  too,  amidst  difficulties  and 
embarrassments  of  the  gravest  character.  During  the 
long  era  of  revolutions  in  Europe,  at  the  close  of  the  past 
and  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  England  be- 
came the  common  asylum  of  the  persecuted  and  the  op- 
pressed of  every  nation  and  of  every  party.  Thousands 
of  such  exiles  flocked  to  her  hospitable  shores.  The 
countries  from  which  they  fled  still  feared  and  hated 
them,  for  they  were  in  many  instances  eminent  as  states- 
men, as  ecclesiastics,  as  scholars,  or  as  soldiers ;  and 
England  was  constantly  urged  to  deliver  them  or  drive 
them  away  from  her  protection.  But  she  never  yielded 


306  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

to  the  importunities  addressed  to  her.  She  watched  over 
her  unbidden  guests  with  constant  vigilance  ;  she  gave 
them  all  the  rights  of  her  free  asylum ;  she  even  fed  them 
from  her  bounty ;  but  she  did  not  suffer  them  to  violate 
her  laws  or  abuse  her  hospitality.  Her  courts  were 
always  open  to  foreigners,  and  almost  at  the  same  time 
presented  the  extraordinary  spectacle  of  the  Emperor  of 
Russia  and  the  First  Consul  of  France  prosecuting  for 
libel  English  journals  edited  by  refugees,  and  each  of 
them  winning  a  verdict  from  an  English  jury. 

II.  Extradition  treaties  impose  no  obligation  for  sur- 
render except  for  the  crimes  specially  named  in  them. 
Demands  for  persons  accused  of  any  other  crimes  are  not 
recognized.     Those  crimes  only  are  mentioned  which  are 
of  such  heinous  nature  as  to  be  generally  condemned  by 
the  moral  sentiments  of  civilized  nations,  and  also  such  as 
with  both  parties  to  the  treaty  receive  substantially  the 
same  punishment.     It  is  generally  held  that  an  accused 
person  ought  not  to  be  given  up  to  a  punishment  severer 
than  that  which  he  would  receive  in  the  country  in  which 
he  has  found  refuge. 

III.  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  are  the  only 
important  nations  which  consent  to  the  surrender  of  their 
own  citizens  or   subjects.      Most  other  states  refuse  to 
make  treaties  for  the  surrender  of  their  own  subjects  for 
trial  and  punishment  by  a  foreign  state.     The  limitations 
in  this  particular  are  by  no  means  uniform. 

IV.  Every   act   of   extradition    must   be   founded   on 
proofs,    formally    presented,    of    some    particular    crime 
among  those  named  in  the  treaty.    "When  the  surrendered 
person   has  been  tried  for  that  crime,   if   acquitted,   he 
cannot  be  tried  for  any  crime  previously  committed,  at 
least  without  the  consent  of  the  country  delivering  him. 
The  reason  for  this  is  that  he  was  surrendered  for  a  par- 
ticular purpose,  and  for  no  other.    Indeed,  it  is  maintained 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  307 

by  some  high  authorities  that  he  has  the  right,  in  such  a 
case,  i.  e.,  arrest  for  another  crime,  if  he  so  elect,  to  be 
restored  to  the  asylum  from  which  he  was  taken,  and  this, 
too,  at  the  expense  of  the  party  that  claimed  him.  On 
this  point  of  trial  for  another  crime  arose  the  recent  dis- 
cussion between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  re- 
specting the  case  of  Winslow,  the  Boston  forger.  Our 
demand  for  this  man's  extradition  was  refused,  save  upon 
the  condition  that  the  government  would  promise  that  he 
should  be  tried  for  no  other  crime  than  forgery,  the  crime 
named  in  the  demand.  This  condition  was  declined  by 
Secretary  Fish,  because  it  was  not  warranted  by  the  terms 
of  the  treaty,  and  a  somewhat  sharp  though  miscellaneous 
correspondence  ensued.  Meanwhile,  the  treaty  was  for  a 
time  suspended  by  our  government,  but  was  renewed  by 
consent  of  both,  on  the  assurance  of  Mr.  Fish  that  we  had 
no  thought  of  trying  Winslow  for  any  other  crime.  By 
this  time  he  had  been  released,  I  believe  by  a  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  and  his  extradition  proved  a  failure.  The 
discussion,  however,  brought  out  the  fact  that  neither  gov- 
ernment had  before  been  careful  on  this  point,  but  that 
Great  Britain  had  determined  to  be  hereafter.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  ground  taken  by  her  government  in 
that  case,  though  not  recognized  by  the  treaty,  is  generally 
sanctioned  by  the  usage  of  nations  and  by  the  best  author- 
ities in  international  law.  That  it  be  mentioned  in  trea- 
ties is  by  no  means  essential. 

V.  It  has  been  already  remarked  that  agreements  among 
states  for  the  extradition  of  criminals  are  of  modern  ori- 
gin. A  century  ago,  Great  Britain  had  no  treaty  of  the 
kind  with  any  foreign  country.  Indeed,  the  word  did 
not  exist  in  the  English  language.  The  first  provision 
for  this  purpose  in  a  treaty  of  the  United  States  is  found 
in  the  British  treaty  of  1794,  known  as  Jay's  Treaty. 
The  agreement  was  limited  to  twelve  years,  and  expired  in 


308  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

1806,  and  the  only  crimes  named  in  it  were  forgery  and 
murder.  It  led,  I  believe,  to  only  one  surrender  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States,  and  that  was  made  in  1799. 
The  circumstances  in  which  that  surrender  was  made,  and 
the  consequences  to  which  it  gave  rise,  rendered  it  exceed- 
ingly odious  to  the  American  people,  and  were  made  use 
of  in  effecting  the  overthrow  of  the  administration  of 
John  Adams.  After  this  inauspicious  beginning,  there 
was  little  disposition  to  introduce  extradition  engage- 
ments into  our  treaties  with  foreign  nations.  It  was 
far  enough  from  the  policy  of  the  general  government 
to  send  out  of  the  country  any  one  who  had  come  to  it 
for  refuge.  Some  attempts  were  made  to  secure  the  rendi- 
tion of  fugitive  slaves  escaping  to  the  West  India  Isl- 
ands. The  period  was  one  of  great  political  agitation  in 
Europe,  and  it  was  the  aspiration  of  the  United  States  to 
become  the  chosen  asylum  of  the  oppressed  and  the  dis- 
contented of  all  nations.  Fugitives  flocked  to  our  shores 
in  vast  numbers,  some  of  whom  became  eminent  citizens 
of  the  country.  But  among  them  were  doubtless  very 
many  who  might  well  have  appropriated  to  themselves  the 
lines  of  the  bard  of  Botany  Bay  :  — 

"  True  patriots  all  ;  for  be  it  understood 
We  left  our  country  for  our  country's  good." 

They  were  seldom  molested.  The  national  authorities 
discouraged  all  applications  for  surrender  in  the  absence 
of  treaties,  and  here  and  there  a  state  took  up  the  work 
of  occasional  extradition  on  its  own  account,  according 
to  the  crude  notions  of  state  sovereignty  which  then  pre- 
vailed. 

It  was  not  till  1842  —  after  nearly  fifty  years  —  that  a 
second  treaty  containing  an  extradition  agreement  was 
made  by  the  United  States.  This  was  the  Ashburton 
Treaty  with  Great  Britain,  which  is  still  in  force.  The 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  309 

crimes  for  which  extradition  may  be  demanded  by  either 
country,  under  this  treaty,  are  seven  in  number,  viz.,  mur- 
der, assault  with  intent  to  murder,  piracy,  arson,  robbery, 
forgery,  the  utterance  of  forged  paper.  It  is  also  ex- 
pressly stipulated  that  a  person  charged  with  either  of 
these  crimes  shall  be  delivered  only  upon  such  evidence 
of  criminality  as  would  justify  his  arrest  and  commit- 
ment for  trial  in  the  country  which  is  called  upon  to 
make  the  surrender.  Since  the  adoption  of  this  treaty 
the  usage  of  extradition  has  entered  very  largely  into  our 
foreign  relations,  and  not  less  than  thirty  treaties  for  that 
purpose  have  been  made.  The  list  embraces  states  as 
insignificant  as  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  the  Dominican  Re- 
public, and  the  Orange  Free  States,  and  even  some  of  the 
free  cities  and  petty  principalities  which  have  since  been 
absorbed  in  the  German  Empire.  The  crimes  named  in 
them  do  not  vary  very  materially  from  those  named  above, 
though  in  the  later  treaties  it  is  to  be  observed  that  embez- 
zlement by  public  officers  or  by  salaried  persons  has  been 
added,  and  also  that  the  specifications  respecting  crimes 
have  become  more  minute.  It  is  pretty  certain  that  our 
extradition  treaties  are  much  more  numerous  than  those 
of  any  other  country,  —  a  fact  which  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  most  other  countries  expect  to  find  their  fugitive 
criminals  in  the  United  States.  Our  recent  experience 
with  Great  Britain  in  the  Winslow  case  has  developed 
the  fact  that  our  agreements  in  relation  to  extradition  are 
especially  liable  to  adverse  constructions,  and  it  has  also 
given  rise  to  the  apprehension  that  they  have  often  been 
carelessly  made  and  loosely  interpreted  in  practice. 

The  great  question  relating  to  extradition  is  whether, 
after  all,  there  is  any  sufficient  reason  to  justify  its  pre- 
valence among  nations.  Is  it  really  in  the  interest  of 
humanity  and  of  civilization  ?  It  claims  to  be  the  growth 
of  the  highest  and  broadest  sense  of  justice.  It  is  in 


310  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

the  name  of  universal  justice  that  it  demands  that  the 
rights  of  asylum  be  set  aside.  It  is  for  the  ends  of 
justice  that  it  claims  to  stretch  forth  its  arm  across  na- 
tional boundaries,  over  dividing  rivers  and  mountains, 
beyond  the  ocean  itself,  to  seize  the  fugitive  criminal,  it 
may  be  in  the  remotest  part  of  the  world,  and  bring  him 
back  to  be  punished  by  the  country  whose  laws  he  has 
violated.  The  essential  idea  of  asylum,  on  the  contrary, 
has  been  clemency  and  mercy.  It  holds  the  escape  of  the 
criminal  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  his  crime  as  equivalent 
to  civil  death,  by  which  the  proper  demands  of  justice  are 
satisfied.  It  recognizes  in  perpetual  exile  a  substitute  for 
the  penalty  which  the  laws  of  the  country  would  inflict. 
If  the  country  which  shelters  him  chooses  to  take  the  risks 
which  belong  to  a  character  and  a  life  like  his,  his  own 
country  ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  visit  him  with  its 
vengeance  for  the  crimes  of  the  past. 

The  question  thus  raised  has  recently  been  discussed 
with  much  earnestness  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  "  Al- 
bany Law  Journal,"  by  the  Hon.  William  Beach  Law- 
rence, than  whom  this  country  has  no  more  learned  or 
eminent  writer  on  public  law.  The  articles  were  called 
forth  by  the  correspondence  between  the  government  of 
Great  Britain  and  that  of  the  United  States  concerning 
the  Winslow  case.  Mr.  Lawrence  appears  to  entertain 
the  opinion  that  the  importance  of  extradition  has  been 
vastly  overrated,  and  that  its  operation  is  attended  with 
drawbacks  and  evils  which  counterbalance,  or  more  than 
counterbalance,  all  the  benefits  it  ever  produces.  He 
urges  :  — 

I.  That,  after  all,  but  very  few  criminals  are,  in  this 
manner,  ever  brought  to  punishment.  Our  present  treaty 
with  Great  Britain  has  been  in  force  thirty-five  years,  and 
thus  far  the  number  of  applications  made  under  it  by  the 
United  States  to  Great  Britain  is  eighty-eight,  of  which 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  311 

only  thirty-four  resulted  in  surrender ;  and  the  number  of 
applications  made  by  Great  Britain  to  the  United  States 
is  forty-eight,  of  which  only  nine  resulted  in  surrender. 
In  addition  to  these,  Mr.  Lawrence  states,  there  have  been 
nineteen  surrenders  from  the  United  States  to  the  British 
Provinces,  while  the  United  States  has  recovered  in  return 
thirty-one  criminals  who  were  demanded  for  justice. 

II.  That  the  inviolability  of  asylum  is  of  greater  im- 
portance than  any  results  of  extradition  are  likely  to  be. 
To  have   this  asylum  imperiled  by  treaties  and  practices 
at  variance  with  it  involves  injury  to  society  and  to  civil- 
ization itself. 

III.  He  maintains  that  the  idea  of  asylum  is  that  those 
whom  it  receives  are  to  be  treated  as  citizens  and  subjects, 
amenable  to  the  same  laws,  entitled  to  the  same  rights 
and  privileges,  and  protected  by  the  same  muniments  as 
the  other  inhabitants  of  the  country.     How,  he  asks,  can 
a  government  containing  so  many  guarantees  of  freedom 
as  does  that  of  Great  Britain  or  the  United  States  ever 
legally  surrender  a  fugitive,  whether  native  or  foreigner, 
to  be  dealt  with  by  a  despotism,  or  indeed  by  any  govern- 
ment whose  fundamental  ideas  of   human  right  are  es- 
sentially different  from  Magna  Charta  and  the  Bill  of 
Eights  ? 

IV.  He  contends  that  exile  is  of  itself  a  sufficient  pun- 
ishment for  any  crime.     The  ancient  Romans  regarded  it 
as  the  greatest  of   all  punishments,  and  there   are   few 
criminals  having  experienced  it  who  have  regarded  it  as 
anything  less. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  to  be  said :  — 

I.  So  far  as  criminals,  by  any  means,  escape  the  pun- 
ishment of  their  crimes,  the  authority  of  law  and  the 
prevalence  of  justice  are  diminished  in  any  country ;  and 
if  the  criminals  who  thus  escape  are  conspicuous  and 
likely  to  become  notorious  as  examples,  law  and  justice 
lose  their  power  everywhere. 


312  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

II.  It  is  manifestly  for  the  interest  of  every  country 
that  the  crimes  perpetrated  in  it  should  be  punished  as 
they  deserve,  and  it  is,  therefore,  for  the  interest  of  all 
countries  that  they  should  assist  each  other  in  securing 
this  end. 

III.  The  time  has  passed,  if  there  ever  was  such  a  time, 
when  any  interest  of  humanity  required  a  nation  to  afford 
asylum  to  fugitive  criminals  of  other  nations.     Such  an 
idea  is  a  perversion  of  the  right  of  asylum.     A  criminal 
has  no  claim  to  protection  anywhere,  and  the  sooner  he  is 
brought  to  punishment  the  better. 

IV.  It  may  also  be  urged  that,  in  the  progress  of  civil- 
ization, nations  are  adopting  common  views  of  justice  and 
of  the  true  methods  of  securing  it.     The  objection  that 
extradition  may  sometimes  deliver  an  accused  person  to 
unjust  modes  of  trial,  or  to  inordinate  punishments,  is 
losing  its  force.     Nations,  too,  are  becoming  more  closely 
linked  together  by  the  bonds  of   common  interests  and  a 
common  civilization,  and  it  is  claimed  that  the  reciprocal 
surrender  of  fugitives  who  are  guilty  of  great  crimes  will 
tend  to  strengthen  these  bonds.     It  is  in  accordance  with 
views  like  these  that  our  own  country  has  been  so  ready 
to  take  the  lead  in  making  treaties  for  this  purpose,  alike 
with  powers  that  are  strong  and  with  those  that  are  weak. 
And  it  was  only  a  step  in  advance  of  such  views  that  a 
Senator  of  the  United  States,  some  years  since,  proposed  in 
the  Senate  a  plan  by  general  law,  without  the  agency  of 
any  treaty,  for  the  extradition  of  all  fugitives  from  justice, 
upon  proper  application  being  made  and  adequate  proofs 
submitted  ;  and  also  for  refusing  asylum  to  all  criminals, 
and  removing  them  from  the  country.     The  proposition, 
however,  has  never  been  acted  upon  in  the  Senate. 

In  the  present  condition  of  civilized  nations  and  their 
relations  with  each  other,  there  is  clearly  no  reason  why 
the  ancient  usage  of  asylum  should  any  longer  be  em- 


ASYLUM  AND  EXTRADITION.  313 

ployed  for  the  special  protection  of  fugitives  from  justice 
who  are  guilty  of  heinous  crimes.  There  is  not  now  any- 
where in  the  civilized  world  any  such  inhumanity  in  the 
administration  of  justice  as  will  justify  this  protection. 
The  continuance  of  it,  and  the  sensibility  with  which  any 
infraction  of  it  is  so  generally  regarded,  save  in  accord- 
ance with  the  express  stipulations  of  a  treaty,  would  seem 
to  have  outlived  the  age  to  which  they  properly  belonged, 
and  in  which  they  were  useful  to  the  interests  of  hu- 
manity. 

Besides  this,  states  are  moral  beings,  and  are  bound  to 
cooperate  with  each  other  in  the  promotion  of  general 
justice  and  right  in  the  world.  This  they  certainly  are 
not  doing  if  they  afford  asylum  to  criminals,  and  make  it 
as  difficult  as  possible  for  each  other  to  obtain  them  and 
bring  them  to  punishment.  So  soon  as  a  state  is  satisfied 
by  judicial  examination  that  the  fugitive  under  its  pro- 
tection is  probably  guilty  of  the  crime  with  which  he  is 
charged,  is  there  any  sufficient  reason  why  he  should  not 
be  surrendered  ?  Extradition  would  thus  become  a  mat- 
ter of  positive  obligation,  which  could  not  be  refused 
among  friendly  states.  Treaties  do  not  create  obliga- 
tions ;  they  only  recognize  them,  and  contain  agreements 
to  fulfill  them.  Such  obligations  are  recognized  in  all 
confederations  of  states,  and,  as  civilization  advances, 
nations  become  bound  to  each  other  by  something  like 
confederate  bonds. 

This  view  I  find  to  be  fully  sustained  by  President 
Woolsey,  who,  mor,e  than  most  living  writers  on  the  sub- 
ject, makes  international  law  rest  on  ethical  principles. 
He  thinks  that  asylum  should  be  less  and  less  afforded  to 
criminals,  and  that  extradition,  when  properly  demanded, 
is  to  be  conceded  as  a  matter  of  right.  We  may  thus 
conclude  that  the  time  is  not  distant  when  the  fugitive 
criminal  guilty  of  a  great  offense  will  be  surrendered  to 


314  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

the  nation  whose  laws  he  has  violated  by  that  to  whose 
asylum  he  has  fled,  with  something  like  j;he  readiness  and 
the  facility  with  which  the  same  surrender  is  accomplished 
among  the  States  of  the  American  Union.  Clearly,  the 
man  who  has  committed  a  great  crime  ought  not  to  be 
secure  in  any  country  to  which  he  may  flee.  Even  if  no 
requisition  is  made  for  his  surrender,  it  would  be  but  just 
and  right,  if  his  guilt  be  great,  that  he  be  required  to 
depart  and  become,  like  the  first  murderer,  a  fugitive  and 
a  vagabond  in  the  earth.  Had  a  monster  like  Arguelles 
been  protected  from  punishment  by  the  asylum  of  the 
United  States,  the  world's  sense  of  justice  would  have 
been  outraged,  and  gigantic  atrocities  of  every  kind  would 
have  received  new  encouragement.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  summary  extradition  of  a  political  peculator  like 
Tweed,  and  the  disgrace  and  ruin  which  came  upon  him 
in  the  city  which  he  so  shamelessly  governed  and  plun- 
dered, proclaim  to  the  official  thieves  of  every  city  and 
every  country  that  the  world  has  no  retreat  in  which  they 
can  hide  themselves  from  the  retributions  which  their 
crimes  deserve. 


ITALY  KEVISITED.i 

MY  first  visit  to  Italy  was  made  in  the  winter  of  1851- 
52,  when  I  was  there  nearly  four  months.  My  second 
visit  was  made  in  the  winter  of  1878-79,  —  twenty-seven 
years  later,  —  and  it  extended  over  nearly  an  equal  time. 
It  is  my  purpose  here  to  sketch  some  of  the  most  con- 
spicuous changes  which  had  taken  place  within  this  inter- 
val, alike  in  the  condition  of  the  country  and  in  the  expe- 
rience of  the  traveler.  Before  doing  this  I  ought  perhaps 
to  say  that  in  my  earlier  visit  I  was  accompanied  by  my 
wife  alone,  while  in  my  late  visit  I  had  the  company  of 
my  wife  and  of  five  of  my  children.  The  party  of  which 
I  had  the  charge  numbered  in  all  nine  persons,  —  a  fact 
which  of  itself  made  a  very  marked  difference  in  the 
journey. 

The  local  characteristics  of  Italy  of  necessity  undergo 
but  little  change  in  the  lifetime  of  a  single  generation. 
Centuries,  indeed,  have  come  and  gone  and  have  witnessed 
scarcely  any  important  alteration.  The  face  of  nature 
there  remains  singularly  the  same.  The  aspect  of  most 
of  the  great  towns  and  the  condition  and  modes  of  life  of 
the  people  were  stereotyped  in  the  Middle  Age,  and,  with 
here  and  there  an  exception,  they  remain  substantially  as 
they  then  were  from  one  generation  to  another.  The  spell 
of  a  strange  and  mighty  past  rests  on  its  population  as 
it  does  nowhere  else  in  Europe.  It  turns  their  thoughts 
backward  rather  than  forward.  They  dwell  on  what  they 
have  been,  rather  than  on  what  they  are  able  to  become. 

1  Read  before  the  Friday  Evening  Club,  April  9,  1880. 


316  HISTORICAL   PAPERS. 

The  grand  enterprises  that  belong  to  the  youth  or  the 
vigorous  manhood  of  a  nation  are  foreign  to  their  con- 
dition, and  they  remain  from  one  age  to  another,  if  not 
content  with  being  only  what  they  are,  at  least  without 
any  grand  aspirations  for  the  destiny  which  was  once  nur- 
tured, and  then  lost  forever.  Nothing  is  more  striking 
than  the  clinging  to  antiquated  modes  of  tilling  the  soil, 
and  of  conducting  most  of  the  mechanic  arts,  which  has 
long  prevailed  in  Italy.  Nor  is  the  common  mode  of  life 
materially  different  from  that  which  existed  there  long 
ago.  New  tastes  and  foreign  fashions  have  been  intro- 
duced among  the  wealthy  and  the  refined,  but  they  have 
left  no  traces  in  the  homes  of  the  poor  and  the  lowly,  and 
it  is  among  them  that  the  national  characteristics  are 
really  found.  Nor  do  the  relative  proportions  which  these 
classes  bear  to  one  another  appear  to  be  different  now 
from  what  they  were  before.  Splendor  and  squalor  still 
flourish  side  by  side,  and  sustain  about  the  same  relations 
to  each  other  as  they  did  at  far  earlier  periods  of  history. 
Northern  Italy,  it  is  true,  still  has  its  marked  social  and 
industrial  characteristics,  which  make  it  appear  almost 
like  a  different  country  from  the  Italy  of  the  south.  Its 
people  are  vigorous,  industrious,  and  in  many  respects 
progressive ;  while  those  of  Southern  Italy  are  of  feeble 
organization,  indolent,  superstitious,  and  stationary.  But, 
after  all,  the  two  are  near  enough  alike  to  show  their 
common  origin,  and  the  common  features  which  so  many 
similar  agencies  have  imparted  to  their  character.  The 
former  are  more  Gothic,  the  latter  are  more  Latin  ;  but 
they  are  all  distinctively  Italian.  In  all  this,  Italy  as  a 
whole  appeared  to  me  to  have  changed  but  little  in  the 
interval  between  1852  and  1879,  though  I  suspect  that 
even  this  little  was  more  than  had  taken  place  in  a  cen- 
tury preceding. 

In  revisiting  the  peninsula,  the  first  conspicuous  novelty 


ITALY  REVISITED.  317 

which  struck  me  was  seen  in  the  vastly  altered  mode  of 
traveling.  The  mountain  ranges  which  environ  Italy 
have  at  all  periods  rendered  it  difficult  of  access.  Over 
several  of  these  ranges  roads  were  made  in  some  period 
of  remote  antiquity,  along  which  invading  hordes  of  Car- 
thaginians, Gauls,  Germans,  Lombards,  in  successive  ages, 
forced  their  conquering  way  to  the  gates  of  Rome.  To 
the  traveler,  however,  Italy  was  never  readily  accessible 
by  land,  until  Napoleon  constructed  those  wonderful  pas- 
sages over  the  Alps  which  were  designed  to  aid  him  in  the 
conquest  of  Europe.  Of  these  stupendous  roads,  one  ran 
along  the  shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  at  the  base  of  the 
Maritime  Alps.  Others  traversed  Mont  Cenis,  the  Sim- 
plon,  the  Great  and  the  Little  St.  Bernard.  Thirty  years 
ago  these  magnificent  roads  were  the  admiration  of  the 
crowds  of  travelers  who  went  to  Italy  by  land,  though 
the  route  by  sea  was  then  far  more  frequented  than  either 
of  them  or  perhaps  all  of  them  together.  For  more  than 
half  of  every  year,  however,  excepting  that  along  the 
shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  they  were  all  more  or  less 
obstructed  by  Alpine  snows,  and  scarcely  a  winter  passed 
in  which  travelers  were  not  overtaken  with  storms  or 
threatened  with  avalanches  that  filled  Europe  with  alarm, 
and  called  forth  those  splendid  feats  of  benevolent  hero- 
ism which  we  associate  with  the  monks  of  St.  Bernard. 

Entering  Italy  over  either  of  these  roads,  by  short 
stages  or  long  stages,  according  to  his  own  pleasure,  the 
traveler  with  observing  eye  made  himself  acquainted  with 
the  entire  route  along  which  he  passed.  He  obtained 
views  of  the  scenery  which  spread  itself  around  him  ;  he 
caught  the  spirit  of  every  historic  spot ;  he  saw  the  peo- 
ple, both  peasants  and  villagers,  in  their  own  homes,  and 
at  their  daily  labors  both  in  the  field  and  in  the  shop  ; 
he  alighted,  if  he  chose,  at  wayside  shrines  and  rural 
churches,  and  looked  at  the  pictures,  sometimes  painted 


318  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

by  great  masters,  which  adorned  them.  At  the  end  of 
each  day's  travel  he  was  conscious  that  he  had  added  to 
his  treasures  of  knowledge  and  experience,  and  that  a 
new  quickening  had  been  imparted  to  his  intellectual  and 
moral  life.  This  mode  of  journeying  undoubtedly  had 
its  drawbacks,  for  it  certainly  consumed  much  time  and 
money,  yet  it  was  singularly  favorable  to  the  best  objects 
for  which  one  goes  to  a  country  like  Italy,  for  he  is  thus 
enabled  to  make  himself  in  some  degree  acquainted  with 
what  is  most  worth  visiting  and  knowing  in  this  historic 
laud. 

How  changed  is  all  this  to  the  traveler  who  now  makes 
his  pilgrimage  to  that  country  !  The  diligence,  the  vettu- 
rino,  and  the  post  chaise  of  a  few  years  since  are  all  past 
and  gone.  They  are  as  obsolete  on  all  the  great  routes  of 
travel  as  the  stage-coach  is  in  New  England.  Railroads, 
which  were  then  (thirty  years  ago)  scarcely  known  south 
of  the  Alps,  have  now  been  built  along  the  most  fre- 
quented passes ;  and  the  Alpine  ranges,  which  from  the 
creation  encircled  the  peninsula  with  their  ramparts,  and 
made  it  so  difficult  of  access,  are  now  pierced  by  tunnels 
and  traversed  by  locomotives  and  trains,  in  utter  disregard 
of  the  stately  grandeur  that  invests  them.  The  Nicene 
Railroad  runs  from  Nice  to  Geneva  along  the  military 
road  of  Napoleon,  though,  at  nearly  every  point  at  which 
the  views  are  the  finest,  it  shuts  itself  up  in  tunnels 
through  the  Maritime  Alps.  A  railroad  was  built  in  zig- 
zag sections  over  Mont  Cenis  some  twenty  years  ago,  but 
in  1870  the  tunnel  through  the  mountain  was  completed, 
and  has  ever  since  formed  the  great  avenue  of  communi- 
cation between  France  and  Italy.  So  recently  as  the  29th 
of  February,  in  this  year  [1880],  the  stupendous  tunnel 
of  Mt.  St.  Gothard  was  completed  for  the  connection  of 
Switzerland  and  Germany  with  Italy.  The  former  is  a 
little  less  than  eight  miles  in  length,  and  its  construction 


ITALY  REVISITED.  319 

required  niue  years.  The  latter  is  nine  and  a  quarter 
miles  in  length,  and  its  construction  required  a  little  less 
than  seven  years  and  a  half.  They  are  by  far  the  longest 
tunnels  in  the  world,  and  their  united  effect  on  the  com- 
merce of  the  great  nations  which  have  united  in  their 
creation  must  be  beyond  all  present  estimate. 

It  is  needless  to  remark  that  this  introduction  of  rail- 
roads has  made  the  approach  to  Italy  a  very  different 
affair  from  what  it  was  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago. 
The  common  mode  of  making  the  journey  now  is  to  enter 
the  train  at  Paris,  and  to  leave  it  only  when  the  Alps  have 
been  penetrated  and  some  great  city  in  Italy  has  been 
reached.  This  is  what  we  call  traveling  in  Europe,  and 
what  we  cross  the  ocean  to  accomplish.  Nor  is  it  different 
when  Italy  is  reached  ;  for  scarcely  any  one  now  thinks  of 
traveling  there  save  by  the  railroad,  on  which  he  is  borne 
along  with  the  smallest  possible  opportunities  of  seeing 
either  the  face  of  nature  or  the  life  of  the  people,  or  of 
gaining  any  useful  impressions  of  any  kind  respecting  the 
country.  I  remember  with  pleasure  that  in  the  spring  of 
1852  I  made  the  journey  from  Rome  to  Florence  in  a 
hired  carriage,  with  Mr.  Hazard  as  one  of  my  companions. 
We  were  four  days  on  the  way,  and  I  think  that  both  he 
and  I  received  very  distinct  impressions  of  natural  scenery, 
of  churches  and  works  of  art,  of  famous  historic  spots,  and 
also  of  the  character  and  life  of  the  Italian  people,  which 
we  shall  never  lose.  In  my  recent  visit  I  made  the  jour- 
ney between  the  same  cities  four  times  on  a  railroad  train, 
being  eight  hours  in  accomplishing  what  then  required 
four  days ;  and  I  can  only  say  that  I  received  no  impres- 
sion whatever  that  I  now  retain,  except  of  the  amazing 
disadvantage  of  traveling  by  railroad.  If  we  go  abroad 
for  business,  or  for  any  purpose  which  demands  the  utmost 
saving  of  time,  the  railroad  is,  of  course,  a  help  above 
all  estimate.  But  if,  as  most  Americans  do,  we  go  in 


320  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

order  to  become  in  some  degree  familiar  with  the  coun- 
tries in  Europe  which  we  visit,  the  railroad  is  certainly  a 
very  unsatisfactory  mode  of  making  our  journeys.  The 
experience  which  it  affords  is  substantially  the  same  in  all 
countries,  and  it  leaves  little  in  the  mind  of  the  traveler, 
whatever  part  of  the  world  he  may  traverse,  but  the  con- 
fused and  useless  memory  of  monotonous  locomotion. 
For  all  the  higher  purposes  of  travel,  it  is  but  little  better 
than  being  at  sea  in  a  steamer.  The  only  satisfaction  is 
in  having  reached  the  journey's  end. 

Nor  is  this  all.  The  old  mode  of  travel  was  continually 
diversified  by  suggestive  incidents  or  exciting  adventures, 
some  of  which,  indeed,  may  have  helped  to  verify  the  say- 
ing of  Dr.  Johnson,  that  "  it  is  not  pleasant  to  travel  but 
to  have  traveled,"  but  of  which,  after  all,  we  were  sure  to 
think,  et  haec  olim  meminisse  juvabit. 

The  consequence  of  this  new  mode  of  traveling  is,  that 
in  foreign  countries  we  now  see  only  the  great  cities,  —  all 
that  lies  between  them  is  to  us  only  a  barren  waste,  —  and 
in  cities  we  live  at  great  hotels,  where  we  meet,  not  the 
people  of  the  country,  but  travelers  like  ourselves.  We 
thus  lose  in  a  great  degree  the  peculiarities  of  the  coun- 
tries we  visit,  for  great  cities  are  very  much  alike  the 
world  over,  and  so  are  railroads  and  great  hotels.  Living 
at  the  latter  is  substantially  the  same  thing,  whether  we 
are  in  Paris,  in  Rome,  in  Vienna,  or  in  New  York.  Since 
railroads  have  been  introduced,  travelers,  especially  from 
the  United  States,  have  multiplied  perhaps  a  hundredfold. 
They  also  make  the  tour  of  Europe  in  less  than  half  the 
time  that  was  formerly  required.  But,  if  I  am  not  greatly 
mistaken,  they  bring  home  vastly  less  information,  vastly 
less  of  that  practical  experience  of  the  world  which  it  is 
the  special  office  of  foreign  travel  to  supply,  and  vastly 
less  intellectual  benefit  of  any  kind,  than  did  the  same 
classes  of  persons  five  and  twenty  years  ago. 


ITALY  REVISITED.  321 

In  visiting  Italy  a  second  time,  I  was  immediately  and 
forcibly  struck  with  the  great  political  change  which  had 
come  over  the  country ;  and  this  underlies  and  accounts 
for  nearly  every  other  change  that  has  taken  place. 
When  I  was  there  in  1852,  the  peninsula  was  divided 
into  some  ten  or  twelve  separate  states,  more  or  less 
independent  and  sovereign,  some  of  which  were  called 
kingdoms,  others  were  called  states,  and  others  duchies, 
while  one  and  perhaps  more  bore  the  name  of  principality, 
and  one  also  the  name  of  republic.  They  had  each  a 
separate  government,  a  separate  army,  a  separate  police 
force,  a  separate  custom  house,  and  a  separate  currency,  — 
all  forming  together  a  combination  of  annoyances,  extor- 
tions, and  frauds  such  as  the  unwary  traveler  encountered 
nowhere  else  in  Europe.  The  passport  system,  too,  was 
in  full  force,  and  presented  an  opportunity  for  the  exer- 
cise of  the  petty  suspicions  and  absurd  apprehensions 
which  a  despotic  government  is  sure  everywhere  to  breed 
among  its  ignorant  officials.  All  these,  too,  had  then 
been  intensified  by  the  popular  uprisings  which  followed 
the  French  Revolution  of  1848.  The  whole  crowd  of  lilli- 
putian  sovereigns  had  been  driven  away,  and  were  now 
just  reinstated  in  their  lost  authority  by  the  reactionary 
movement  which  had  taken  place.  The  result  was,  that 
the  people  of  the  Italian  States  were  the  wretched  victims 
of  several  of  the  meanest  and  most  contemptible  of  des- 
potisms. In  Naples,  the  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies,  as  he 
was  styled,  had  come  back  to  his  throne,  as  Napoleon 
said  of  his  Bourbon  cousins  in  France,  having  "  learned 
nothing  and  forgotten  nothing  "  during  his  enforced  ab- 
sence. He  had  wreaked  his  vengeance  on  the  whole  lib- 
eral party,  and  it  was  said  that  the  prisons  of  the  city, 
and  of  the  islands  that  stud  the  beautiful  waters  that  lie 
around  it,  then  held  not  less  than  twenty  thousand  of  the 
best  young  men  of  the  country,  —  statesmen,  scholars, 


322  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

patriots  of  every  calling,  who  had  opposed  his  govern- 
ment. Mr.  Gladstone  had  just  before  visited  Naples,  and 
had  attended  the  trials  and  learned  the  history  of  several 
of  these  state  prisoners  ;  and  I  well  remember  how  his 
description  of  their  sufferings  stirred  the  indignant  sym- 
pathy of  liberal  minds  in  every  land.  Nor  were  things 
much  better  in  the  Papal  States,  where  the  Pope,  himself 
at  first  a  reformer  and  a  champion  of  Italian  freedom,  had 
been  driven  from  Rome  by  the  republic  of  Mazzini.  He 
had  now  just  been  restored,  and  was  still  guarded  in  his 
own  capital  by  the  troops  of  Louis  Napoleon.  In  Tus- 
cany, in  Venice,  in  Lombardy,  the  hereditary  dukes  had 
been  reestablished  by  Austria,  and  her  troops  alone  kept 
the  people  in  subjection.  In  Sardinia  alone  was  there 
anything  like  constitutional  government.  Here,  under 
the  liberal  statesmanship  of  Count  Cavour,  the  king  had 
made  generous  concessions  to  the  people,  and  was  consoli- 
dating a  government  which  was  at  length  to  bring  redemp- 
tion to  all  Italy.  With  this  exception,  the  governments 
were  despotisms  as  hateful  and  repulsive  as  could  be  found 
in  the  civilized  world.  Their  narrow,  suspicious,  and  mer- 
cenary spirit  pervaded  their  humblest  officials,  and  the 
traveler  encountered  it  constantly  in  his  dealings  with  the 
custom-house  inspectors,  the  passport  examiners,  the  local 
police  of  every  degree  with  whom  the  necessities  of  travel 
in  those  days  brought  him  in  contact. 

Now  all  this  is  happily  changed,  and  one  sees  from  his 
first  experience  in  Italy  how  radical  and  beneficent  this 
change  has  become.  Not  only  is  all  Italy  under  one  gov- 
ernment, but  it  is  immediately  evident  that  this  govern- 
ment is  constitutional  and  liberal.  There  is  no  longer 
interference  with  private  rights,  no  espionage  of  personal 
conduct,  no  extortion,  no  petty  tyranny  of  officials.  Even 
custom-house  inspectors  treat  you  civilly,  and  make  no 
demands  for  passing  your  baggage.  You  become  immedi- 


ITALY  REVISITED.  323 

ately  impressed  with  the  fact  that  you  are  in  a  country  as 
free  and  as  well  governed  as  any  on  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope, and  this  impression  abides  with  you  so  long  as  you 
remain  there.  The  great  social  results  of  this  change  are 
becoming  everywhere  visible.  Education,  though  still  too 
much  neglected,  is  awakening  greater  interest  than  before. 
The  condition  of  the  people,  it  is  said,  is  beginning  to  im- 
prove, especially  in  the  north,  where  the  new  order  of 
things  has  prevailed  the  longest.  Superstition  is  still  con- 
spicuous everywhere,  but  religious  freedom  is  the  law  of 
the  land,  and  signs  of  a  higher  and  better  national  life  are 
appearing  all  over  the  peninsula. 

This  unification  of  Italy,  after  ages  of  division  and  of 
strife  among  its  provinces,  deserves  to  rank  among  the 
foremost  events  of  the  century  to  which  it  belongs.  It 
was  brought  about  by  unexpected  agencies  singularly 
diverse  and  independent  of  each  other,  and  often  designed 
for  ends  very  different  from  that  which  they  finally  ac- 
complished. The  central  force  among  them  all  was  al- 
ways the  resolute  purpose  of  the  King  of  Sardinia,  whose 
constant  aim  was  towards  this  single  result.  Among  the 
foremost,  however,  of  the  incidental  agencies  which 
brought  it  to  pass  was  the  twofold  ambition  of  Louis 
Napoleon,  who  on  the  one  hand  desired  to  be  considered 
the  protector  of  the  Papacy,  and  on  the  other  was  deter- 
mined to  humble  the  Emperor  of  Austria.  This  led  him, 
first  of  all,  to  overthrow  the  Roman  republic,  and  soon  to 
secure  the  Pontifical  States  with  French  troops  ;  and  then 
to  engage  with  Victor  Emmanuel  in  the  war  with  Austria, 
which  resulted  in  the  annexation  of  Lombardy,  Parma, 
and  Modena  to  Sardinia  in  1860.  On  this  large  accession 
to  his  territory  Victor  Emmanuel  was  proclaimed  King 
of  Italy,  and  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Tuscany  immediately 
placed  itself  under  his  jurisdiction.  Another  agency,  of 
quite  an  opposite  character,  now  for  a  time  becomes  con- 


324  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

spicuous,  and,  though  with  doubtful  willingness,  contributes 
to  the  same  result.  Garibaldi,  the  military  creator  of  the 
fallen  republic  of  Rome,  without  authority  of  any  kind 
fits  out  an  expedition  of  a  thousand  men  at  Genoa,  and 
invades  Sicily  and  the  Neapolitan  States.  The  people 
everywhere  receive  him  with  acclamations ;  the  king  flees 
in  terror  from  his  capital ;  and  Garibaldi  forms  a  provi- 
sional government,  apparently  on  his  own  account.  When 
the  King  of  Sardinia  demands  an  explanation  of  this 
singular  movement,  apparently  for  founding  a  separate 
republic,  he  answers  that  his  only  purpose  had  been  from 
the  beginning  to  make  the  Two  Sicilies  a  part  of  the 
Italian  kingdom,  which  was  accomplished  without  de- 
lay by  the  votes  of  the  people.  His  success  in  Naples 
prompted  him  to  attempt  a  similar  enterprise  in  Venetia, 
which  was  still  in  possession  of  Austria ;  but  the  Italian 
king  was  obliged  to  suppress  it,  which  he  was  able  to  do 
only  by  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  its  daring  and 
valorous  leader.  In  1865  the  capital  of  Italy,  hitherto  at 
Turin,  was  established  at  Florence,  a  city  of  central  posi- 
tion, and  more  secure  alike  from  Austria  and  from  France. 
And  in  the  following  year,  the  contest  between  Austria 
and  Prussia  led  to  the  abandonment  by  the  latter  of  the 
Venetian  States,  and  their  voluntary  incorporation  with 
the  Italian  kingdom.  Meanwhile  the  French  occupation 
of  the  Papal  States  had  been  partially  abandoned  by  the 
withdrawal  of  the  troops  from  several  of  these  states, 
and  these  had  immediately  added  themselves  to  United 
Italy. 

In  this  manner,  within  six  years,  was  accomplished  what 
had  been  the  fruitless  aspiration  of  centuries  of  struggle, 
and  Italy  was  now  free  from  her  foreign  oppressors. 
Nothing  remained  but  the  absorption  of  the  Pontifical 
States  to  make  her  union  complete.  This  the  irrepres- 
sible Garibaldi  and  his  associates  were  ready  to  bring 


ITALY  REVISITED.  325 

about  by  rifle  clubs  and  popular  uprisings,  and  for  this 
they  were  willing  to  drive  the  Pope  from  his  ancient  seat, 
and  make  him  a  wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  The 
king,  however,  and  advisers  saw  the  difficulty  and  delicacy 
of  the  situation,  and  he  determined  to  take  no  step  which 
he  should  be  obliged  to  recall.  Indeed,  had  it  been  pos- 
sible, there  is  reason  to  think  that  he  would  have  preferred 
to  leave  the  Pope  with  little  or  no  further  disturbance. 
Excommunicated  though  he  was,  he  evidently  had  a 
kindly  regard  for  the  sovereign  pontiff  of  the  Church. 
The  Pope,  however,  had  denounced  him  from  the  begin- 
ning. He  had  denied  all  right  to  the  title  of  king  of 
Italy,  and  had  declared  it  to  be  impossible  for  the  Church 
to  recognize  his  authority. 

But  the  question  was  soon  to  be  decided  by  the  unex- 
pected course  of  events.  The  war  between  France  and 
Germany  broke  out,  and  detachment  after  detachment  of 
the  French  troops  was  recalled  by  the  exigencies  of  the 
time.  The  last  embarked  at  Civita  Vecchia  on  the  9th  of 
August,  1870.  On  the  1st  of  September  Louis  Napoleon 
surrendered  at  Sedan,  and  with  that  event  the  French 
Empire  fell.  The  country  was  greatly  excited  by  the 
revolutionary  ideas  which  were  widely  prevalent.  They 
were  propagated  by  the  emissaries  of  Mazzini  and  Gari- 
baldi, and  were  designed  to  excite  the  young  men  of  Italy 
to  strike  for  what  was  called  the  Universal  Republic.  In 
these  circumstances,  Victor  Emmanuel  saw  that  decisive 
action  could  no  longer  be  delayed.  It  was  as  necessary 
for  the  safety  of  the  Pope  as  for  that  of  the  kingdom  of 
Italy.  He  immediately  ordered  a  division  of  his  army  to 
enter  the  papal  territory,  and  at  the  same  time  addressed 
to  the  Pope  a  most  respectful  letter,  remarkable  alike  for 
its  practical  wisdom  and  the  careful  consideration  which 
it  expressed  of  what  was  due  to  the  head  of  the  Church.  It 
assured  him  that  his  temporal  power  was  no  longer  possible, 


326  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

and  implored  his  assistance  in  carrying  into  effect  mea- 
sures for  securing  and  harmonizing  the  rights  of  the  Ro- 
man population,  the  inviolability  of  the  supreme  pontiff, 
and  the  independence  of  the  Holy  See.  The  Pope  made 
no  answer  to  the  letter.  He  saw  that  the  end  was  at 
hand,  but  he  refused  all  overtures,  and  simply  protested 
against  what  he  denounced  as  "  a  great  sacrilege  and  a 
most  enormous  injustice."  At  the  end  of  eight  days  the 
king  sent  a  flag  of  truce  to  Rome,  demanding  the  sur- 
render of  the  garrison  that  defended  the  city.  Every 
effort  was  made  by  the  foreign  ministers  at  the  papal 
court  to  bring  about  the  surrender  without  the  loss  of 
life.  The  papal  general,  however,  had  received  orders 
not  to  yield  till  a  breach  had  been  made  by  the  Italian 
troops.  The  cannonading  lasted  four  hours,  when  the 
gates  were  opened,  and  the  king,  on  the  20th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1870,  took  possession  of  Rome,  amidst  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  people  for  United  Italy.  Thus  fell  the  tem- 
poral sovereignty  of  the  Roman  pontiff,  —  a  sovereignty 
which  dates  back  from  that  distant  period  when  the  im- 
perial capital  was  occupied  by  Alaric  the  Goth,  which 
ruled  over  a  wide  district  of  Italy  as  early  as  the  first 
quarter  of  the  eighth  century,  and  which  at  its  overthrow 
was  by  far  the  oldest  sovereignty  in  Europe.  By  a  strange 
coincidence  the  Vatican  Council,  which  in  the  preceding 
July  had  sanctioned  the  dogma  of  Papal  Infallibility, 
was  still  in  session  at  St.  Peter's,  and  illustrious  ecclesias- 
tics from  every  country  of  Christendom  were  thus  pres- 
ent at  Rome  to  witness  the  final  overthrow  of  the  ponti- 
fical power,  and  the  personal  humiliation  of  the  head  of 
the  Church,  and  the  union  of  the  entire  papal  territory 
with  the  kingdom  of  Italy.  To  them,  the  spectacle  must 
have  presented  a  melancholy  contrast  with  that  tran- 
scendent arrogance  with  which  the  Pope  had  summoned 
a  council  of  the  world  to  give  its  solemn  sanction  to  his 


ITALY  REVISITED.  327 

claim  to  infallibility.  Indeed,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
promulgation  of  this  dogma,  so  threatening  in  its  bear- 
ings on  civil  allegiance,  the  catastrophe  which  had  befallen 
them  might  have  been  alleviated  by  the  sympathy,  perhaps 
even  partially  averted  by  the  interference,  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  sovereigns  of  Europe.  The  alienation,  however, 
which  it  created  in  Austria,  in  Germany,  and  in  Spain,  is 
to  be  reckoned  as  another  of  the  agencies  which  made  this 
catastrophe  so  complete. 

The  King  and  the  Parliament  of  Italy  now  addressed 
themselves  to  the  great  questions  which  the  course  of 
events  had  forced  upon  their  consideration ;  especially, 
what  position  should  be  assigned  to  the  Pope,  and  what 
relations  should  subsist  between  the  Church  and  the  new 
State.  These  questions  received  the  most  careful  atten- 
tion, and  in  May,  1871,  they  were  formally  settled  in  what 
is  called  the  "Law  of  Papal  Guarantees,"  which,  it  must 
be  admitted,  is  exceedingly  liberal  in  its  provisions.  By 
this  law  the  person  of  the  Pope  is  declared  to  be  sacred 
and  inviolable,  and  any  offense  against  him  is  to  be  pun- 
ished as  an  offense  against  the  king.  He  is  to  be  received 
by  the  government  officials  with  royal  honors,  and  is  al- 
ways to  have  the  same  precedence  as  is  accorded  to  him 
in  all  Catholic  countries ;  to  have  as  many  guards  as  he 
may  desire;  to  remain  in  possession  of  the  Vatican,  the 
Lateran,  and  the  Castel  Gandolpho,  with  all  their  out- 
buildings, libraries,  picture  galleries,  and  furniture,  and 
other  contents,  which  are  to  be  inalienable  and  exempt 
from  taxation.  No  official  of  the  government,  without 
permission,  can  enter  them  for  any  purpose  whatever. 
He  is  to  have  a  post-office  and  a  telegraph  service  of  his 
own  for  each  of  his  palaces,  and  is  free  to  correspond,  with- 
out interference,  with  whomever  he  pleases.  The  semina- 
ries and  places  of  education  in  Rome  and  the  suburban 


323  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

dioceses  are  also  to  be  under  his  sole  control.1  As  for 
the  relations  of  the  Church  and  the  State,  the  law  de- 
clares the  Church  to  be  entirely  independent  of  the  au- 
thority of  the  State.  The  State  abandons  all  right  of 
nominating  for  offices  in  the  Church,  providing  only  that 
Italian  subjects  alone  shall  be  appointed  to  them ;  and 
claims  no  right  of  revision  of  decrees,  or  publications  of 
ecclesiastical  authorities,  and  no  appeal  is  to  be  allowed 
from  any  sentence  of  ecclesiastical  courts,  but  the  civil 
officers  are  not  permitted  to  assist  in  executing  such  sen- 
tences. It  is  to  be  a  free  Church  in  a  free  State. 

This  law  was  offered  to  the  Pope  in  the  most  respect- 
ful manner  by  the  Italian  government  as  a  basis  of  settle- 
ment, but  he  indignantly  refused  to  take  notice  of  it,  or  to 
make  any  terms  whatever.  He  claimed  that  his  authority 
and  his  possession  could  rest  only  on  divine  appoint- 
ment. He  would  not  accept  the  annual  allowance  of 
$645,000,  or  allow  that  the  government  had  any  right  to 
guarantee  his  personal  safety,  his  sovereign  rank,  or  the 
property  that  had  always  belonged  to  him  and  his  prede- 
cessors. In  short,  he  showed  himself  wholly  impractica- 
ble, and  chose  to  regard  and  represent  himself  as  a  pris- 
oner shut  up  in  his  own  palace,  and  stripped  not  only  of 
the  means  of  maintaining  his  state  as  the  supreme  head 
of  Christendom,  but  also  of  procuring  the  comforts  of  life. 
The  postulates  which  he  enjoined  on  the  acceptance  of  all 
faithful  Catholics  in  Italy  were :  1.  That  the  temporal 
power  must  be  speedily  reestablished.  2.  That  all  sincere 
votaries  of  the  Church  must  abstain  from  political  elec- 
tions. 3.  That  it  is  impossible  for  the  Papacy  and  the 
kingdom  of  Italy  to  exist  together.  This  was  of  course 
a  declaration  of  relentless  hostility  to  the  entire  new  order 
of  things. 

1  He  is  also  to  receive  an  annual  allowance  of  3,225,000  lire 
($645,000),  free  from  all  taxes. 


ITALY  REVISITED.  329 

This  hostile  and  disdainful  attitude  of  the  Pope,  how- 
ever, made  no  difference  in  the  conduct  of  the  govern- 
ment. The  removal  of  the  capital  to  Rome  had  become 
a  state  necessity  which  the  king  could  not  escape,  reluc- 
tant though  he  might  be  to  take  the  step.  Accordingly,  so 
soon  as  arrangements  were  completed,  the  government 
offices  were  transferred  from  Florence,  and  the  king  ar- 
rived in  Rome  on  July  2,  1871,  and  made  his  residence 
at  the  Quirinal  Palace,  amidst  the  loyal  demonstrations 
of  the  Roman  people. 

Had  it  been  possible  to  avoid  this  removal,  I  cannot 
but  think  that  it  would  have  been  better  to  do  so.  In  the 
first  place,  Florence  is  a  healthy  and  cheerful  city  ;  suffi- 
ciently central  for  all  the  interests  of  the  kingdom,  and 
in  all  respects  suitable  to  be  capital  of  Italy.  Rome,  on 
the  contrary,  apart  from  the  associations  that  belong  to  it 
as  the  seat  of  the  ancient  empire,  has  no  such  suitable- 
ness. It  is  not  central ;  it  is  not  healthy ;  for  at  least 
five  months  of  the  year  the  king  and  the  chief  officers  of 
state  must  reside  elsewhere,  because  of  the  malaria  that 
broods  over  the  city.  The  population  withal  is  not  of  a 
character  to  be  desired  in  the  national  capital.  The  mass 
of  the  people  are  essentially  republican ;  and  however  loyal 
for  the  time,  they  regard  the  present  order  of  things  only 
as  a  prelude  to  the  restoration  of  the  Roman  republic. 
The  noble  families,  on  the  other  hand,  very  generally 
sympathize  with  the  Pope.  They  turn  their  backs  on  the 
king  and  his  court.  They  never  visit  the  Quirinal,  and 
present  themselves  only  at  the  receptions  of  the  Vatican. 
The  presence,  too,  of  the  king  in  what  has  for  ages  been 
the  papal  capital,  is  sure  to  be  a  perpetual  grievance  to 
the  Pope,  and  an  unfailing  reminder  of  the  humiliation 
to  which  he  has  been  reduced.  It  is  said  the  king  him- 
self had  no  desire  to  establish  himself  in  Rome.  At  the 
same  time  there  seemed  to  be  no  alternative,  and  in  the 


330  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

judgment  of  his  wisest  ministers,  it  was  as  essential  to  the 
security  of  the  Pope  as  it  was  to  the  satisfaction  and 
quiet  of  Italy.  The  only  other  plan  that  was  suggested 
was  that  Rome  be  made  a  free  city,  though  a  part  of  the 
royal  domain,  and  that  the  Pope  be  placed  at  its  head, 
with  guarantees  similar  to  those  enacted  by  the  Italian 
Parliament.  It  is  not  probable,  however,  that  he  would 
have  fared  as  well  with  the  people  as  with  the  king. 

When  I  was  in  Rome  a  year  ago,  it  had  been  for  eight 
years  the  capital  of  United  Italy.  In  that  time  both  a 
new  Pope  and  a  new  king  had  come  upon  the  scene,  but 
the  Quirinal  and  the  Vatican  were  still  wholly  at  variance 
with  each  other.  They  were  the  seats  of  opposite  and 
hostile  jurisdictions.  The  young  king  and  queen  were 
daily  seen  in  the  public  drives  of  the  city,  on  the  Pincian 
Hill,  and  in  the  Borghese  Gardens.  The  Pope,  on  the 
contrary,  never  leaves  the  Vatican.  He  acts  on  the  theory 
of  his  predecessor,  that  he  has  been  robbed  of  his  right- 
ful possessions,  and  that  he  is  now  restricted  as  a  prisoner 
to  his  palace  and  its  inclosures.  And  in  this  view  he  is 
encouraged  by  the  sympathies  of  a  very  influential  por- 
tion of  Roman  society,  whom  the  king  finds  it  impossible 
to  conciliate.  So  it  is  likely  to  be  until  some  future  and 
wiser  Pope  shall  show  himself  willing  to  accept  what  is 
inevitable,  to  relinquish  all  pretensions  to  temporal  sov- 
ereignty, and  to  make  the  most  of  that  unrestricted  spirit- 
ual dominion  which  seems  to  be  spreading  more  and  more 
widely  over  the  world. 

Meanwhile  Rome  is  undergoing  changes  of  the  most 
striking  character.  The  whole  machinery  of  the  old  des- 
potism has  been  demolished  and  destroyed.  There  is  en- 
tire freedom  of  the  press,  entire  freedom  of  speech,  and 
entire  freedom  of  thought,  action,  and  worship.  In  these 
particulars  it  is  no  longer  the  same  place  that  I  had 
visited  before.  Then  suspicion  and  espionage  were  in  the 


ITALY  REVISITED.  331 

air,  and  half  the  population  seemed  to  be  spies  on  the 
rest.  The  government  professed  to  watch  over  the  souls 
of  its  subjects.  It  took  Bibles  and  Protestant  books  from 
the  trunks  of  travelers,  and  allowed  no  word  nor  thought 
of  dissent  from  either  the  religion  or  the  politics  of  the 
Pope.  The  English  church  stood,  as  it  stands  now,  with- 
out the  gates,  because  no  permission  could  be  had  to  build 
it  within  them,  and  the  little  congregation  of  Americans 
held  their  worship  in  the  apartments  of  Mr.  Cass,  the 
minister  of  the  United  States,  because  no  room  could  be 
rented  for  the  purpose.  Now  an  American  Episcopal 
church  stands  within  the  walls,  and  congregations  of  wor- 
shipers from  several  Protestant  countries  meet  every 
Sunday;  and  more  than  this,  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  has  opened  a  Depository  of  Italian  Bibles 
and  Testaments,  and  is  scattering  them  all  over  Italy,  and 
there  are  mission  schools  and  chapels  of  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odists, of  Scottish  Presbyterians,  of  Baptists,  of  French 
Protestants,  and  perhaps  of  others,  all  openly  maintained 
in  the  heart  of  the  city.  The  same  is  true  of  other  Italian 
cities.  The  Pope  has  issued  a  pastoral  letter  denouncing 
these  schools  and  chapels,  which  shows  full  well  how  per- 
nicious he  thinks  them  to  be,  but  I  doubt  if  the  letter 
serves  any  other  purpose  than  to  make  them  more  widely 
known. 

During  the  brief  period  in  which  the  Italian  govern- 
ment has  been  in  possession,  a  special  commission  has 
been  appointed  for  prosecuting  antiquarian  researches  in 
Rome,  in  accordance  with  a  definite  and  carefully  con- 
sidered plan,  and  very  important  results  have  been  ob- 
tained. Up  to  this  period  the  work  had  been  carried  on 
sometimes  by  the  papal  government  and  sometimes  by 
foreign  governments,  especially  those  of  France,  Russia, 
and  Germany,  but  always  with  too  little  method  and  per- 
sistency. Now,  under  the  direction  of  a  commission  com- 


332  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

posed  of  the  most  enlightened  antiquaries,  the  task  of  un- 
earthing the  ruins  of  the  ancient  city  is  making  progress 
more  advantageously  than  ever  before.  I  was  most  forci- 
bly impressed  with  what  had  been  accomplished  on  and 
near  the  Palatine  Hill.  On  the  slopes  formerly  covered 
with  convents  and  villas  and  gardens  are  now  disclosed, 
some  thirty  feet  below  them,  the  ruins  of  those  stupen- 
dous structures  which  bear  the  name  of  Palaces  of  the 
Caesars,  which  are  regarded  as  among  the  most  interest- 
ing and  important  ruins  of  the  days  of  the  emperors.  In 
the  progress  of  this  work,  relics  and  works  of  art  of  every 
kind  have  been  found  in  such  numbers  that  a  new  mu- 
seum has  been  opened  for  their  reception.  Of  the  extent 
to  which  the  old  Roman  soil  is  filled  with  this  curious 
wealth,  some  idea  may  be  formed  from  the  following  list 
of  what  was  obtained  in  the  year  1873  alone,  viz. :  17 
statues,  24  busts,  6  basso  -  rilievo,  7  sarcophagi,  2,700 
fragmentary  sculptures,  125  epigraphs  on  marble,  14,900 
coins,  700  stamped  bricks,  2,050  stamps  on  amphorae, 
217  terra-cotta  lamps,  8  rings,  and  2  collars  of  gold,  be- 
sides numerous  objects  in  bronze,  all  estimated  at  £8,000 
sterling.1 

But  far  more  noticeable  than  these,  to  the  traveler  who 
revisits  the  city,  are  the  local  transformations  which  cer- 
tain parts  of  it  have  already  undergone.  The  creation  of 
the  new  is  more  striking  than  the  uncovering  of  the  old. 
The  coming  of  the  government  to  Rome  is  said  to  have 
added  some  30,000  to  its  population.  The  consequence  is, 
that  vast  enterprises  and  local  improvements  of  different 
kinds  have  been  undertaken  to  an  extent  which  had  not 
been  witnessed  before  in  many  centuries.  Most  of  these 
are  in  the  region  of  the  Quirinal  Hill,  where  the  old  pal- 
ace of  the  popes,  now  the  residence  of  the  king,  has  been 
renovated  and  enlarged,  and  where  grand  buildings  for 
1  Heroans,  p.  696. 


ITALY  REVISITED.  333 

the  several  departments  of  the  government  have  been 
erected. 

It  is  evident  that  a  people  thus  recently  brought  to- 
gether requires  the  guiding  hand  of  some  sagacious  states- 
man and  leader,  such  as  Count  Cavour  was  to  Sardinia, 
for  there  are  many  serious  difficulties  to  be  overcome,  and 
such  a  statesman,  I  fear,  Italy  does  not  now  possess.  The 
national  debt  is  so  large  as  to  destroy  the  public  credit. 
The  currency  is  wholly  of  paper,  and  is,  of  course,  im- 
mensely depreciated.  The  government,  too,  is  afflicted 
with  the  apprehension  of  Austrian  or  other  foreign  inva- 
sion, and,  in  addition  to  an  expensive  fleet,  it  maintains  a 
peace  establishment  of  600,000  men  taken  from  the  in- 
dustrial population  of  the  country.  In  addition  to  this, 
the  people  are  still  in  wretched  ignorance,  scarcely  more 
than  one  third  of  them  being  able  to  read  and  write.  But 
no  single  problem  relating  to  the  condition  of  Italy  is  so 
pregnant  with  danger  or  so  difficult  of  solution  as  the 
problem  of  the  Papacy.  The  attitude  of  the  Pope,  from 
the  beginning,  has  cast  a  blight  over  the  political  interests 
of  the  new  kingdom.  He  denies  its  right  to  exist ;  he 
pronounces  anathemas  on  its  government,  and  warns  its 
subjects,  if  they  would  be  faithful  to  the  Church,  to  re- 
frain from  participating  in  political  affairs.  Whether  it 
be  in  consequence  of  this  or  not,  it  is  said  to  be  a  fact 
that  not  more  than  a  third  of  the  voting  population  ever 
take  part  in  elections.  The  high  ecclesiastics  and  the 
parish  priests  everywhere  echo  the  utterances  of  the  Vati- 
can ;  and  the  Pope,  pauper  and  prisoner  though  he  claims 
to  be,  is  yet  able  to  wield  a  power  which  the  King  and 
Parliament  cannot  control.  To  conciliate  this  hostile 
agency  has  thus  far  proved  to  be  impossible  ;  to  annihilate 
it  is  deemed  equally  impossible. 

But  I  will  not  enter  into  the  possibilities  which  attend 
this  embarrassing  and  difficult  problem.  I  need  only  re- 


334  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

fer  to  the  methods  in  which,  on  the  one  side  or  the  other, 
it  is  hoped  that  a  solution  may  be  found.  In  the  first 
place,  there  are  those  who  maintain  that  the  temporal 
power  may  yet  be  restored  to  the  Pope ;  that,  as  its  over- 
throw was  made  possible  only  by  a  peculiar  juncture  in 
the  affairs  of  Europe,  so,  in  some  future  juncture,  it  may 
be  reestablished.  Associations  for  securing  this  result 
exist  in  several  Roman  Catholic  countries,  and  even  in 
England.  These  all  cherish  the  idea  that  the  Almighty 
will  punish  the  sacrilege  which  has  been  committed,  and 
reinstate  the  Church  in  her  rightful  authority.  On  the 
other  hand,  several  different  methods  of  settling  the  rela- 
tions between  the  Pope  and  the  Italian  government  have 
been  suggested  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  champions 
of  Italian  unity,  and  care  nothing  for  the  vested  rights  of 
the  Papacy. 

I.  It  is  proposed  that  the  government  repeal  the  Law  of 
Guarantees,  abolish  the  quasi-sovereign  rights  of  the  pon- 
tiff over  the  Vatican  and  the  Lateran  palaces,  and  place 
him  in  the  same  civil  condition  as  every  other  ecclesiastic 
in  Italy.     It  is  held  that  the  government  did  not  go  far 
enough  at  the  beginning,  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  leave 
him  in  possession  even  of  the  semblance  of  temporal  sov- 
ereignty which  he  now  possesses,  and  that  nothing  short 
of  the  annihilation  of   this  sovereignty  can    destroy  his 
power  to  injure  the  state.     It  is  feared,  however,  that  a 
proceeding  like  this  would  awaken  the  sympathy  of  Cath- 
olic Christendom,  and  produce  a  reaction  most  harmful  to 
the  government. 

II.  It  is  proposed  that  Italy  shall  invite  other  Roman 
Catholic  governments  to  join  with    her  in  some  plan  of 
guaranteeing  the  support  of  the  Pope  in  honorable  inde- 
pendence, with  a  stipulation  that  he  will  abandon  his  an- 
tagonism and  place  the  Church  in  full  harmony  with  the 
State.     The  obvious  objection  to  this  is  that  it  involves 


ITALY  REVISITED.  335 

foreign  interference  and  cooperation,  and  thus  perils  the 
independence  of  Italy. 

III.  There  are  those,  both  in  Italy  and  out  of  it,  who 
think  that  the  present  Pope  is  possessed  of  excellent 
sense,  and  even  of  statesmanship,  —  attributes  to  which 
his  predecessor  possessed  no  claim  whatever.  They  be- 
lieve that  he  fully  appreciates  the  necessity  of  a  final  ad- 
justment of  some  kind.  Indeed,  he  has  announced  it 
to  be  his  desire  to  adapt  the  Church  to  the  condition 
and  spirit  of  modern  civilization.  The  advice,  therefore, 
which  they  give  to  the  government  is,  to  avoid  all  collision 
with  the  Pope,  to  maintain  a  conciliatory  policy,  and  wait 
till  an  occasion  shall  arise  that  shall  be  favorable  to  a  re- 
ciprocal recognition,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  political  su- 
premacy of  the  Italian  State,  on  the  other,  of  the  spiritual 
supremacy  of  the  papal  Church,  of  a  temporal  kingdom 
in  which  the  head  of  Latin  Christendom  shall  be  secure 
and  independent,  and  of  a  spiritual  church  which  shall  be 
the  unfailing  moral  bulwark  of  the  civil  throne.  It  must 
be  admitted  that  this  would  require  the  Pope  always  to 
be  an  Italian,  as  indeed  he  has  in  fact  been  for  the  past 
three  hundred  and  fifty  years  ;  and,  what  is  of  far  graver 
importance,  it  would  give  to  the  Papacy  an  aspect  of  local 
nationality,  instead  of  the  universality  which  is  insepara- 
ble from  its  real  character.  That  the  relations  of  the  two 
be  established  on  an  amicable  basis  is  of  great  importance 
to  Italy,  and  of  nearly  equal  importance  to  the  Papacy. 
The  attitude  of  irreconcilable  hostility  is  adverse  to  every 
interest  of  both.  Nor  is  the  interest  in  this  question  con- 
fined to  Italy,  or  even  to  the  limits  of  the  Latin  Church. 

Cardinal  Newman  has  recently  called  attention  to  the 
vastly  altered  tone  of  public  sentiment  towards  Roman 
Catholics  in  England.  He  has  had  ample  reason  for  this 
in  his  own  personal  experience.  The  same  may  be  said 
of  public  sentiment  in  this  country,  and  probably  in  every 


336  HISTORICAL  PAPERS. 

Protestant  country,  for  every  Protestant  government  reck- 
ons them  in  multitudes  among  its  own  subjects.  These 
altered  feelings  towards  the  individuals  naturally  extend 
to  the  Church  itself.  Enlightened  Protestants  no  longer 
regard  it  with  the  hostility  which  they  once  cherished. 
The  Pope  thus  naturally  becomes  a  subject  of  interest 
throughout  Christendom,  by  more  than  half  of  whose  in- 
habitants he  is  acknowleged  as  their  spiritual  ruler.  He 
is  the  most  conspicuous  personage  in  Christendom,  even 
to  those  who  have  separated  themselves  most  widely  from 
his  sway.  While  very  few  Catholics  probably  desire  him 
to  stand  in  the  way  of  Italian  unity  and  progress,  there 
are  also  very  few  Protestants  who  desire  to  have  him  sub- 
jected to  any  needless  humiliations.  His  independence  is 
undoubtedly  indispensable  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  ; 
and  after  all  that  has  been  said  about  it,  no  thoughtful 
man  believes  that  the  destruction  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  would  now  be  other  than  a  disaster  alike  to 
Christianity  and  civilization. 


PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS  DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  RHODE 
ISLAND   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY 

AT   THE   OPENING   OF   THEIR   CABINET,    NOVEMBER    20, 

1844. 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  :  — 

WE  have  come  together  to  celebrate  an  event  which 
may  well  form  an  era  in  the  history  of  our  Society,  —  the 
completion  and  opening  of  the  chaste  and  commodious 
structure  which  is  henceforth  to  become  the  permanent 
depository  of  our  collections  for  Rhode  Island  history. 
The  occasion,  though  far  removed  from  the  exciting  scenes 
that  ordinarily  occupy  the  attention  of  men  in  this  bus- 
tling and  restless  age,  is  yet  one  which  holds  high  and  im- 
portant connections  with  the  dignity,  the  prosperity,  and 
the  fame  of  the  city  and  of  the  State.  Let  us,  then,  turn 
aside,  for  a  brief  time,  from  the  engrossing  occupations  of 
every-day  life  to  consider  the  purposes  of  our  association, 
and  at  this  new  altar  to  kindle  afresh  our  devotion  to  the 
objects  to  which  it  is  to-day  to  be  forever  consecrated. 
They  are  objects  which  intimately  concern  some  of  the 
best  interests  of  society,  and  they  earnestly  appeal  to  some 
of  the  noblest  sympathies  of  our  intellectual  and  spiritual 
nature. 

The  care  which  preserves  the  materials  for  a  people's 
history  is  characteristic  only  of  advanced  stages  of  civili- 
zation, and  a  high  degree  of  social  and  intellectual  cul- 
ture. The  barbarous  passions  that  crave  merely  present 
gratification,  and  the  engrossing  spirit  of  trade  that  heeds 
only  the  prospect  of  pecuniary  gain,  are  alike  unmindful 


340  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

of  the  connection  that  subsists  between  a  nation's  history 
and  a  nation's  character.  Wealth  and  power  may  rear 
costly  monuments  to  the  memories  of  the  great ;  the  bard  of 
a  rude  age  may  celebrate  in  mythic  verse  the  achievements 
of  heroism  and  courage ;  but  the  collection  of  the  scattered 
memorials  of  the  past,  the  nice  and  discriminating  research 
into  its  obscure  recesses,  and  the  writing  of  history,  —  such 
history  as  may  instruct  mankind,  —  these  are  never  accom- 
plished until  society  has  made  progress  in  social  and  moral 
culture,  until  out  of  the  mighty  mass  of  its  baser  passions 
and  perishable  interests  there  has  sprung  an  intellectual 
spirit,  —  a  sense  that  craves  a  deeper  wisdom  than  the 
voices  of  the  living  world  can  ever  teach.  It  is  then  that 
we  study  the  characters  of  the  past,  and  reproduce  them 

in  the  present. 

"  We  give  in  charge 

Their  names  to  the  sweet  lyre.     The  historic  muse, 
Proud  of  the  treasure,  marches  with  it  down 
To  latest  times  ;  and  Sculpture,  in  her  turn, 
Gives  bond  in  stone  and  ever-during  brass, 
To  guard  them  and  to  immortalize  her  trust." 

It  is  the  appropriate  object  of  an  historical  society  to 
collect  and  preserve  all  the  relics  of  the  past  that  may 
serve  as  materials  for  history.  This  object,  when  liberally 
prosecuted,  cannot  fail  to  exert  the  most  salutary  influ- 
ences, not  only  upon  those  immediately  engaged  in  its 
accomplishment,  but  upon  the  whole  spirit  of  a  commu- 
nity. It  leads  us  along  the  checkered  course  of  human 
affairs.  It  conducts  us  through  the  successive  experi- 
ments that  have  been  made  in  politics  and  morals ;  the 
changes  of  social  condition,  of  language,  and  of  manners  ; 
the  controversies  that  have  agitated  society,  and  the  en- 
terprises that  have  resulted  in  its  comfort  and  improve- 
ment ;  and  it  brings  to  our  notice  all  that  has  affected  the 
interests  of  humanity  within  the  sphere  to  which  it  more 


ADDRESS.  341 

especially  relates.  This  object,  in  all  civilized  lands,  has 
at  all  times  been  regarded  as  of  the  highest  importance. 
Not  only  does  its  successful  accomplishment  ensure  accu- 
racy and  completeness  to  the  labors  of  the  historian,  but 
it  also  suggests  innumerable  topics  to  the  philosopher  and 
moralist,  and  sheds  new  light  upon  the  mysterious  prob- 
lems of  man's  social  progress  and  destiny. 

But  in  this  country,  especially,  the  objects  which  asso- 
ciations like  ours  have  in  view  address  themselves  with 
still  more  commanding  interest  to  the  attention  of  the 
scholar  and  the  citizen,  and  ally  themselves  even  more 
closely  with  the  well-being  and  improvement  of  society. 
I  speak  not  now  of  the  shadowy  period  which  elapsed  be- 
fore the  settlement  of  America  began,  fraught  with  curi- 
ous interest,  and  fruitful  of  mighty  problems  though  it 
be.  The  researches  of  the  antiquarian  traveler  are  just 
disclosing  the  burial-place  of  its  perished  races,  and  lift- 
ing the  veil  of  oblivion  from  the  ruins  of  its  wonderful 
civilization.  Without  reference,  however,  to  this  remote 
antiquity,  so  filled  with  mysteries  and  marvels,  and  so  over- 
whelming by  its  vastness,  there  are  subjects  enough  of 
transcendent  interest  in  the  origin  and  progress  of  our 
own  civilization,  which  has  sprung  up  and  borne  its  aston- 
ishing fruits  upon  these  transatlantic  shores.  It  is  indeed 
of  recent  origin,  but  it  is  of  peculiar  character.  It  was 
engrafted  upon  this  wild  continent  from  the  world's  best 
stock.  Its  earliest  eras  are  comparatively  of  yesterday ; 
but  its  growth  and  development  have  been  marked  by 
great  events,  and  illustrated  by  deeds  and  characters  of 
the  loftiest  heroism.  It  has  given  a  new  continent  to  the 
dominion  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  and  has  opened  here, 
for  the  language,  the  laws,  and  the  religion  of  our  British 
forefathers,  the  path  to  a  destiny  more  glorious  and  sub- 
lime than  has  ever  been  recorded  in  the  annals  of  man- 
kind. The  origin  and  history  of  this  peculiar  civilization, 


342  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

the  early  struggles  it  maintained  with  the  perils  of  the 
wilderness  and  the  hostility  of  savages,  the  virtues  that 
adorned  its  character,  and  the  men  who  pioneered  its  pro- 
gress, —  these  and  all  their  numerous  relationships  and 
results  are  subjects  that  demand  the  careful  and  reverent 
study  of  the  American  people.  That  such  subjects  be 
thoroughly  investigated,  and  the  memorials  relating  to 
them  be  carefully  treasured  up,  may  be  of  unspeakable 
benefit  to  the  future  fortunes  of  mankind.  No  toil, 
whether  of  hands  or  of  minds ;  no  expenditure,  whether 
of  effort  or  of  wealth,  that  may  be  required  to  do  this,  — 
will  be  bestowed  in  vain. 

Nor  is  the  influence  which  such  inquiries  exert  upon 
the  spirit  and  character  of  a  people  to  be  lightly  estimated. 
It  liberalizes  their  aims,  breaks  down  their  prejudices,  ele- 
vates and  ennobles  their  interests,  and  enlarges  their  sym- 
pathy with  the  changeful  fortunes  of  the  common  hu- 
manity. The  English  moralist  has  well  remarked,  that 
"  whatever  withdraws  us  from  the  power  of  the  senses, 
and  makes  the  past,  the  distant,  or  the  future  predominate 
over  the  present,  advances  us  in  the  dignity  of  thinking 
beings."  Now  it  is  precisely  this  influence  which  historic 
studies,  above  all  other  pursuits,  are  particularly  fitted  to 
exert.  They  serve  to  multiply  the  ties  which  bind  a  peo- 
ple to  an  honored  ancestry,  and  to  rally  with  new  energy 
their  hopes  and  affections  around  the  brilliant  eras  of  their 
history,  and  the  monuments  which  record  the  struggles  of 
patriotism  or  the  triumphs  of  freedom.  They  call  back 
the  buried  forms,  the  forgotten  achievements,  the  vanished 
scenes,  of  a  departed  age,  and  cause  them  to  move  again, 
in  a  brilliant  and  impressive  panorama,  before  the  mind  of 
the  present  generation.  They  thus  mingle  the  interests 
and  images  of  other  times  with  the  engrossing  cares  and 
pursuits  that  now  occupy  our  attention,  and,  amid  the 
wrecks  of  departed  ages,  they  read  to  us  lessons  of  the 


ADDRESS.  343 

truest  practical  wisdom.  By  thus  opening  to  the  minds 
of  a  people  the  fountains  of  their  early  history,  may  be 
best  secured  that  unity  of  national  character  and  that 
high-toned  national  spirit  which  more  than  armies  or  na- 
vies, more  than  legislative  codes  or  written  constitutions, 
preserve  from  decay  the  institutions  of  a  country.  "  These 
noble  studies,"  as  Milton  has  said  of  kindred  pursuits, 
"  are  of  power  to  imbreed  and  cherish  in  a  great  people 
the  seeds  of  virtue  and  public  civility."  They  interpret 
the  prophetic  voices  of  the  past,  and  by  clothing  each 
familiar  spot,  each  ruin  and  hill-top  and  river,  with  the 
associations  of  history,  they  increase  and  justify  the  feel- 
ings of  veneration  and  pride  with  which  the  patriot  clings 
to  the  institutions  of  his  country. 

No  sooner  does  a  nation  become  indifferent  to  her  his- 
tory than  her  national  spirit  begins  to  decline.  The  chain 
of  consanguinity  which  runs  through  successive  genera- 
tions, and  binds  them  in  perpetual  union,  is  broken  asun- 
der. The  state,  no  longer  venerated  as  a  parent,  is  sub- 
jected to  the  experiments  of  wretched  empirics,  or,  it  may 
be,  is  turned  adrift  on  the  wild  sea  of  revolution,  with 
no  principles  of  inherited  wisdom  to  guide  her,  no  lights 
of  the  storied  past  to  shine  upon  her  wayward  course. 
Modern  times  have  furnished  at  least  one  memorable  ex- 
ample of  this  truth  in  the  frenzied  struggles  of  revolu- 
tionary France,  and  that  one  example,  it  may  be  hoped, 
is  enough  for  all  ages.  It  seemed  as  though,  to  her,  her 
whole  previous  existence  as  a  nation  were  utterly  useless, 
and  almost  as  though  Time  had  rolled  his  course  in  vain. 
In  her  proud  self-conceit  she  heeded  none  of  the  lessons 
of  her  own  or  of  others'  experience.  From  the  ages  of 
her  national  glory,  from  the  brilliant  rallying-points  of 
her  history,  she  turned  away  in  contempt  to  pursue  the 
glittering  phantoms  of  an  upstart,  impracticable  philoso- 
phy. The  altars  of  her  ancient  religion  she  threw  down, 


344  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

and  from  the  proudest  spots  of  her  soil  she  removed  the 
monuments  of  early  patriotism  and  valor,  hallowed  by  the 
associations  of  centuries,  that  she  might  set  up  there  the 
blood-stained  emblems  of  her  fanatical,  atheistical  repub- 
lic. It  was  said  by  one  of  her  own  statesmen,  with  almost 
literal  truth,  that  "  you  might  alter  the  whole  political 
frame  of  the  government  in  France,  with  greater  ease 
than  you  could  introduce  the  most  insignificant  change 
into  the  customs  or  even  the  fashions  of  England." 

But  the  labors  of  an  historical  society  are  of  more 
particular  benefit  in  their  specific  connection  with  the 
office  of  the  historian.  Their  object  is  to  provide  the  ma- 
terials of  which  history  is  to  be  composed.  In  this  coun- 
try, especially,  this  is  a  work  which  private  associations 
must  do.  The  government,  whether  of  the  States  or  the 
nation,  has  hitherto  done  but  little  to  rescue  from  oblivion 
the  minuter  materials  for  our  national  history.  They 
must  be  discovered  and  brought  together,  and  prepared 
for  the  historian's  use,  by  private  efforts  alone,  or  they 
will  perish  forever.  It  is  thus  only  that  the  narratives  of 
American  history  can  be  raised  to  that  higher  standard 
of  truth  and  accuracy  which  shall  make  them  faithful  ex- 
ponents of  the  real  progress  of  the  nation.  Lord  Bacon 
has  remarked,  that  "  nothing  is  so  seldom  found  among 
the  writings  of  men  as  true  and  perfect  civil  history." 
And  the  remark  is  scarcely  less  applicable  to  the  writings 
of  our  own  age  than  of  that  in  which  it  was  uttered.  A 
part,  however,  of  the  imperfection  which  it  implies,  may 
be  remedied  by  a  nicer  and  more  discriminating  research, 
a  more  careful  collection  and  preservation  of  all  the  ma- 
terials that  can  illustrate  the  spirit  or  the  facts  of  an  age 
or  a  nation. 

But,  after  all,  what  is  written  history  but  the  exponent 
and  suggester  of  that  which  is  not,  and  which  cannot  be, 
written  ?  The  events  that  no  pen  records  always  far  out- 


ADDRESS.  345 

number  those  contained  on  the  historic  page ;  and  there 
are  a  multitude  of  characters  haunting  the  mysterious 
chambers  of  the  past,  whom  no  artist  has  ever  sketched 
for  the  picture  galleries  of  history.  This  fact  the  historian 
must  keep  constantly  in  view,  and  he  must  write  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  concentrate  and  preserve  the  spirit  of  the 
whole  in  the  part  which  he  records.  For  this  purpose,  he 
must  pursue  innumerable  investigations  whose  results  he 
cannot  use  ;  he  must  thread  many  a  labyrinth  of  contro- 
versy which  will  not  yield  him  a  single  fact ;  and  he  must 
study  the  lives  and  deeds  of  men  whose  names  even  will 
not  appear  in  the  pages  of  his  writings.  It  is  only  in  ac- 
cordance with  this  principle  that  historical  accuracy  has 
ever  been  secured.  Herodotus,  the  father  of  this  species 
of  composition,  spent  years  in  traveling  over  many  lands, 
in  conversing  with  their  various  inhabitants,  in  gathering 
up  their  scattered  traditions  and  legends,  and  in  extract- 
ing from  them  all  whatever  could  illustrate  the  times  of 
•which  he  wrote,  ere  he  delivered  his  immortal  work  to  his 
assembled  countrymen  at  the  games  of  Greece.  Gibbon 
devoted  the  enthusiasm  of  youth,  and  the  best  energies  of 
manhood,  to  delving  in  the  lore  of  classic  antiquity.  He 
studied  the  doctrines  of  every  philosophic  school,  the  prin- 
ciples of  every  art  and  every  science,  and  "  crossed  and 
re-crossed,  again  and  again,  the  gloomy  gulf  that  separates 
the  ancient  from  the  modern  world,"  and  gathered  the 
relics  of  many  a  perished  race  and  broken  dynasty,  ere  he 
was  prepared  to  write  the  "  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire."  And  the  historian  of  modern  Europe 
informs  us  that  his  recent  brilliant  work  on  the  French 
Revolution  was  the  result  of  fourteen  years  of  traveling 
and  study,  and  of  fourteen  more  devoted  to  the  labors  of 
composition. 

There  is  also  another  respect  in  which  the  collections  of 
an  association  like  ours  are  of  essential  service  to  the  his- 


346  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

torian.  It  is  not  always  the  most  splendid  events  that 
do  most  in  moulding  the  character  of  an  age,  or  in  shap- 
ing the  destiny  of  a  people.  The  mightiest  streams  of 
political  or  of  moral  influence  often  spring  from  some 
humble  fountain  embosomed  in  the  retreats  of  private 
life,  and  quite  shut  out  from  the  notice  of  the  mere  gen- 
eral inquirer.  To  these  sequestered  places  the  historian 
must  penetrate,  by  the  aid  of  the  minutest  investigation 
and  of  the  most  comprehensive  generalizations.  In  doing 
this,  his  first  resort  is  to  the  collections  which  others  have 
made,  to  the  materials  which  have  been  provided  ready  to 
his  hand.  He  uses  them  and  makes  them  tributary  to  the 
lessons  he  would  teach,  in  accordance  with  the  same  high 
principle  as  that  on  which  the  philosophic  astronomer  em- 
ploys the  results  of  the  humble  observer  who  nightly 
watches  the  stars,  and  chronicles  the  silent  changes 
through  which  they  pass.  As,  in  comparative  anatomy, 
a  single  disconnected  bone  reveals  to  the  naturalist  the 
structure  and  habits  of  a  race  of  animals  that  has  been 
extinct  for  ages ;  so,  often,  the  mutilated  record  of  some 
forgotten  manuscript,  the  neglected  work  of  some  ancient 
chronicler,  will  open  to  the  historian  the  whole  history  of 
an  age,  and  enable  him  to  revive  its  spirit  and  exhibit 
"  its  very  form  and  pressure."  Thucydides  has  sketched, 
in  glowing  colors,  the  revolutions  of  the  States  of  Greece ; 
but  could  some  Athenian  letters,  written  by  the  patriots 
who  lived  during  the  terrific  era  he  describes,  now  be 
rescued  from  the  oblivion  to  which  they  have  passed,  they 
might  reveal  to  us  the  scenes  of  Corcyra  or  of  Corinth, 
the  motives  of  statesmen  and  the  springs  of  revolution, 
far  more  fully  than  they  can  now  be  gathered  even  from 
the  pages  of  the  most  graphic  of  historians.  And,  to  take 
a  more  familiar  example,  he  who  would  thoroughly  un- 
derstand the  social  spirit  and  character  of  the  early  set- 
tlers of  our  own  Providence  Plantations  must  have  re- 


ADDRESS.  347 

course,  not  to  the  provisions  of  the  first  or  the  second 
charter,  nor  even  to  the  records  of  the  town  alone,  but  to 
the  scattered  documents  that  describe  their  strifes  with 
the  people  at  Pawtuxet,  and  their  endless  disputes  about 
bounds,  and  about  the  meaning  of  the  famous  words,  "  up 
stream  without  limits,"  in  the  sachem's  original  deed ;  or 
to  the  singular  paper  which  Roger  Williams  submitted  to 
the  town,  entitled  "  Considerations  Touching  Rates."  It 
is  from  these,  and  such  as  these,  the  incidental  relics  of 
things  that  have  passed  away  forever,  that  the  historian 
forms  his  conception  of  an  age,  and  spreads  it  forth  upon 
his  pictured  page. 

But  collections  like  these  of  which  I  am  speaking  are 
not  only  of  essential  service  to  the  historian ;  they  also 
enable  the  reader  to  verify  the  statements,  to  enlarge 
and  extend  the  views,  contained  in  history  itself.  How 
many  theories  have  been  exploded,  how  many  misrepre- 
sentations have  been  corrected,  long  after  they  have  been 
chronicled  in  history,  by  the  subsequent  researches  of 
more  diligent  or  impartial  inquirers !  Hume  was  for  a 
long  time  regarded  as  the  almost  perfect  embodiment  of 
philosophical  impartiality,  and  his  "  History  of  England  " 
was  read  with  universal  delight,  as  the  authentic  narrative 
of  the  proud  march  of  the  English  people  from  barbarism 
to  civilization  through  the  checkered  fortunes  of  their 
career.  But  the  researches  of  later  inquirers,  and  espe- 
cially the  publication  of  documentary  details,  relating  to 
the  more  important  periods  of  which  he  treats,  have  cast 
a  shadow  over  his  historic  fame,  which  is  growing  deeper 
and  deeper  with  every  succeeding  generation.  The  inim- 
itable qualities  of  his  style,  and  the  charming  grace  of  his 
manner,  will  long  make  his  great  work  the  delight  of  all 
who  read  English  history ;  but  it  is  only  when  its  errors 
have  been  corrected,  its  partial  representations  extended, 
its  cold  indifference  to  the  interests  of  humanity  animated 


348  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

with  philanthropic  sentiment  and  generous  sympathy,  that 
it  becomes  a  safe  guide  to  the  true  principles  of  the 
English  Constitution,  or  the  real  fortunes  of  the  English 
nation. 

We  may  recur,  for  other  illustrations,  to  the  history  of 
our  own  State,  at  a  period  within  the  recollection  of  some 
who  are  present  to  day.  All  are  familiar  with  the  fact 
that  Rhode  Island  was  the  last  of  the  thirteen  States  to 
adopt  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  to  join  the  union 
which  had  been  formed.  But  how  small  a  portion  of  the 
real  history  of  that  event  is  this  single  fact !  There  is 
here  no  explanation  of  the  causes  of  this  reluctant  assent ; 
no  illustration  of  the  influences  which  were  at  work  to 
blind  the  people  to  the  true  dignity  and  happiness  of  the 
State.  It  is  only  when  we  leave  the  historic  record,  and 
go  back  to  the  scattered  chronicles  of  the  day,  or  converse 
with  the  aged  men  who  still  live  to  describe  it,  that  we  can 
form  any  adequate  conception  of  the  conflicting  passions 
which  then  rent  our  little  republic  on  this  engrossing 
question.  Many  a  quiet  citizen  of  the  present  day,  who 
glories  in  the  Constitution  of  his  country,  would  hear  with 
astonishment  of  the  strifes  which  agitated  this  State  at 
the  period  of  its  adoption ;  when  town  and  country  were 
in  arms  against  each  other,  and  military  officers,  and  even 
legislators  and  judges,  assembled  with  a  rustic  mob  to  pre- 
vent by  violence  the  civil  rejoicings  which  the  success  of 
the  Constitution  in  other  States  called  forth  among  the 
people  of  Providence ! 

Other  illustrations  without  number  might  be  adduced 
to  show  how  much  of  our  knowledge  of  the  spirit  and  pro- 
gress of  a  people  depends  upon  collecting  and  carefully 
treasuring  up  all  the  materials  for  composing,  illustrating, 
and  explaining  their  history.  But  I  need  not  dwell  upon 
these  familiar  and  well-established  views  respecting  the 
importance  of  historic  studies.  In  other  countries  they 


ADDRESS.  349 

have  created  a  deep  and  widespread  interest,  they  have 
received  the  fostering  care  of  government,  and  have  re- 
sulted in  the  accumulation  of  the  most  magnificent  treas- 
ures of  historic  lore.  The  rich  collections  of  the  King's 
Library  at  Paris,  of  the  British  Museum  at  London,  of  the 
splendid  libraries  at  Copenhagen  and  Gottingen,  at  Ber- 
lin and  Vienna,  each  containing,  on  an  average  nearly 
400,000  volumes,  show  how  much  has  been  done  to  keep 
the  past  from  being  forgotten,  and  to  preserve  all  its  im- 
portant facts  and  teachings,  and  even  its  evanescent  spirit, 
for  the  future  instruction  and  guidance  of  mankind.  What 
event  in  tlfe  history  of  modern  Europe  cannot  there  be 
illustrated  !  What  age  cannot  there  be  revived !  The 
visitor  to  these  stupendous  collections  of  books  and  manu- 
scripts, as  he  wanders  amazed  through  their  crowded  al- 
coves, sees  piled  on  every  side  around  him  all  that  the 
diligence  of  man,  aided  by  princely  munificence  and  im- 
perial power,  has  been  able  to  rescue  from  the  mighty 
wrecks  of  the  past ;  and  he  feels  a  generous  pride  in  the 
thought  that  so  much  at  least  is  safe,  of  all  which  gifted 
genius  has  created,  or  which  the  race  of  man  has  suffered 
and  achieved,  through  the  long  centuries  of  its  existence. 

Our  own  country,  though  far  behind  the  leading  na- 
tions of  Europe  in  her  collections  of  books,  has,  however, 
begun  to  cultivate  a  most  worthy  and  commendable  in- 
terest in  the  monuments  of  her  early  history.  Every- 
thing pertaining  to  the  planting  and  the  early  growth  of 
the  settlements  of  America  has  at  length  acquired  a  high 
value,  and  is  becoming  a  matter  of  universal  demand.  It 
can  now  no  longer  be  said  that  the  richest  collections  of 
materials  for  American  history  are  in  foreign  lands,  shut 
up  in  the  libraries  of  princes  or  of  curious  scholars,  or 
sealed  away  in  the  Plantation  Offices  of  the  British  gov- 
ernment. They  are  here  in  the  heart  of  New  England, 
where  they  have  been  gathered  by  the  munificence  of  pri- 


350  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

vate  citizens,  and  the  enlightened  agency  of  our  literary 
institutions,  and  here  they  must  remain  forever. 

The  numerous  Historical  Societies  which  have  been 
formed  in  this  country,  furnish  also  another  most  gratify- 
ing proof  of  the  growing  interest  in  all  that  pertains  to 
American  History.  The  Massachusetts  Historical  So- 
ciety was  founded  in  1790.  During  the  period  which  has 
since  elapsed,  it  has  published  twenty-seven  volumes  of 
its  Collections.  It  has  accumulated,  by  its  researches,  a 
library  of  books  and  manuscripts  of  immense  value,  and 
has  set  on  foot  inquiries  and  historic  labors,  whose  influ- 
ence has  been  felt  in  every  part  of  the  land*  At  later 
periods,  similar  societies  have  been  established  in  the 
others  of  the  New  England  States,  in  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio,  Kentucky,  Indiana,  and  Georgia,  each 
one  of  which  has  contributed  something  for  the  illustra- 
tion or  the  enriching  of  our  local  or  general  history.  Of 
these,  the  society  in  New  York  is  by  far  the  most  liberal 
in  its  resources  and  aims,  and  the  most  active  and  diligent 
in  its  inquiries.  It  has  published  six  volumes  of  Collec- 
tions pertaining  to  the  history  of  its  own  State,  and  is  at 
this  moment  prosecuting  its  objects,  with  a  zeal  and  enter- 
prise which  give  full  assurance  that  all  that  has  ever  been 
achieved,  in  earlier  or  in  later  days,  by  the  sturdy  set- 
tlers of  the  New  Netherlands  or  their  persevering  suc- 
cessors, will  be  duly  chronicled  on  the  pages  of  American 
history. 

But  the  history  of  no  State  in  the  Union,  we  may  safely 
say,  presents  claims  upon  the  attention  and  study  of  her 
citizens  so  strong  as  does  that  of  Rhode  Island.  Her 
origin  was  peculiar,  and  her  position  among  the  States  of 
New  England  was  marked,  for  many  generations,  by  the 
same  peculiarity.  The  three  divisions  of  the  State,  the 
Plantations  of  Providence,  the  settlement  at  Aquetneck, 
and  the  settlement  at  Warwick,  were  first  peopled  by 


ADDRESS.  351 

those  who  had  been  driven  from  the  neighboring  colonies 
for  opinion's  sake.  Though  differing  in  almost  every 
other  respect,  they  were  entirely  agreed  in  maintaining 
the  one  great  principle  which  persecution  had  taught 
them,  the  inalienable  freedom  of  the  conscience,  the  un- 
derived,  unchartered  independence  of  the  human  soul. 
In  others  of  their  political  and  ethical  opinions,  they  par- 
took of  the  errors  of  their  time,  other  interests  of  society 
they  may  even  have  neglected,  but  in  their  perception  and 
application  of  this  principle  —  the  basis  of  all  real  free- 
dom—  they  strode  far  before  the  age  to  which  they  be- 
longed. They  seemed  to  their  contemporaries  to  be  pur- 
suing, with  reckless  zeal,  a  startling  and  impracticable 
paradox ;  but  they  felt,  themselves,  the  greatness  of  the 
mission  they  were  appointed  to  accomplish  —  to  found  a 
refuge  for  "  true  soul  liberty,"  to  hold  forth  to  mankind 
the  first  "  lively  experiment,  that  a  most  flourishing  civil 
State  may  stand,  and  be  best  maintained,  with  a  full 
liberty  in  religious  concernments."  This  noble  purpose 
they  adhered  to  with  a  tenacity  that  never  yielded  —  with 
a  consistency  that  never  was  marred,  amidst  the  penury 
and  the  privations  of  the  wilderness,  amidst  the  scorn  and 
the  persecutions  of  all  their  neighbors.  The  colony,  from 
the  first,  in  the  language  of  the  settlers  at  Newport,  was 
"  a  birth  and  breeding  of  the  Most  High."  Here,  "  be- 
yond the  chartered  grasp  of  civilized  men,"  it  was  founded* 
by  "  an  outcast  people,"  who  gloried  most  in  "  bearing 
with  the  several  judgments  and  consciences  of  each  other 
in  all  the  towns  of  the  colony."  In  this  consisted  the 
peculiarity  of  Rhode  Island.  In  this,  the  fundamental 
principle  of  her  society,  she  stood  forth  in  the  age,  single 
and  alone  —  nee  viget  quidquam  simile,  aut  secundum. 

This  peculiarity  in  her  early  character  made  her  the 
object  of  incessant  suspicion  and  distrust,  and,  at  length, 
arrayed  against  her  the  combined  legislation  and  proscrip- 


352  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

tion  of  all  the  other  colonies  of  New  England.  They 
chose  to  regard  her  as  a  heterodox,  and  almost  as  an  out- 
law State,  whose  interests  and  happiness  they  might  prey 
upon  at  pleasure,  and  without  rebuke.  They  laid  claim  to 
her  territory,  and  extended  their  jurisdiction  over  her  peo- 
ple, and  well-nigh  crushed  her  in  her  very  cradle.  Mas- 
sachusetts passed  a  law  forbidding  the  inhabitants  of 
Providence  from  coming  to  her  towns;  and  when  a  re- 
spected clergyman  of  Newport,  with  two  companions,  went 
to  visit  an  aged  member  of  his  church,  resident  at  Lynn, 
he  was  seized  by  the  beadles  of  the  town,  while  preaching 
on  the  Sabbath,  at  the  house  of  his  friend,  and  was  pun- 
ished, under  sentence  of  the  court,  by  a  heavy  fine  and 
imprisonment,  with  the  alternative  of  being  publicly 
whipped!  The  fine  was  paid  without  the  good  man's 
knowledge  or  consent,  and  he  was  released  from  prison. 
One  of  his  companions,  however,  was  still  retained  in  con- 
finement, and  when  set  at  liberty,  was  whipped  with  thirty 
stripes,  inflicted  with  that  merciless  severity  which  heresy 
alone  could  have  provoked.  Under  the  operation  of  this 
exclusive  policy,  which  was  adopted  by  the  neighboring 
colonies,  the  inhabitants  of  Rhode  Island  were  not  only 
cut  off  from  the  trade  of  the  country,  but  were  often 
obliged  to  forego  the  comforts  and  the  common  necessaries 
of  life.  This  hostility,  which,  from  the  beginning,  had 
characterized  the  intercourse  of  the  other  settlements  with 
the  fathers  of  Rhode  Island,  in  1643,  was  embodied  in  the 
confederacy  which  was  established  among  the  colonies  of 
New  England.  The  leading  object  of  this  confederacy 
was  the  mutual  protection  of  its  members  against  the 
Indians,  whose  hostility  was  threatened  on  every  side,  and 
against  the  rising  settlements  of  the  French  and  the 
Dutch,  with  whom  England  was  then  frequently  at  war. 
The  circumstances  of  its  formation  are  worthy  of  a  mo- 
ment's particular  consideration.  The  contracting  parties 


ADDRESS.  353 

to  the  league  were  the  colonies  of  Massachusetts  and  Plym- 
outh, of  New  Haven  and  Connecticut,  each  of  which,  by 
its  commissioners,  signed  the  articles  at  Boston,  on  the 
19th  of  May,  1643.  This  union  Rhode  Island  was  not 
invited  to  join,  and  subsequently,  at  her  own  application 
to  be  admitted  a  member,  she  was  deliberately  refused 
admission  ;  an  act  which,  taken  in  all  its  circumstances, 
stands  out  among  the  most  unchristian  and  inhuman  re- 
corded in  Puritan  history,  in  whose  strange  records  are  so 
often  blended  the  direst  atrocity  and  the  loftiest  virtue. 
Here  was  an  infant,  feeble  colony,  situated  between  two 
powerful  races  of  savages  —  the  Wampanoags  on  the  east 
and  the  Narragansetts  on  the  west  —  and  separated  by  the 
wide  Atlantic  from  the  mother  country.  Its  people  were 
of  the  same  Anglo-Saxon  stock,  and  professed  the  same 
Protestant  faith  with  their  neighbors.  They  had  come 
from  England  in  the  same  ships  which  bore  the  colonists 
of  Plymouth  and  Boston,  of  New  Haven  and  Hartford. 
Like  them  they  had  lighted  the  fires  of  civilization  in  the 
wilderness,  and  by  their  beneficent  influence  with  the  In- 
dians they  had,  more  than  once,  saved  the  whole  country 
from  the  desolations  of  savage  war.  Yet  it  was  all  in  vain. 
They  had  adopted  the  startling  heresy,  that  men  are  re- 
sponsible for  their  opinions  to  God  alone ;  that  the  civil 
power  may  not  interfere  in  religious  concernments ;  and 
that  before  the  law  of  the  land  all  should  alike  be  equal, 
whether  Protestants  or  Papists,  whether  Jews  or  Turks. 
For  this  opinion,  which  they  had  dared  to  proclaim,  and 
to  carry  into  practice,  they  were  placed  beneath  the  ban 
of  universal  proscription,  and  were  deliberately  excluded 
from  the  alliance  and  the  sympathies  of  the  whole  civili- 
zation of  the  country  —  to  perish,  it  might  be,  from  the 
wastings  of  starvation  and  disease,  or  amid  the  terrors  of 
Indian  massacre  and  conflagration. 

At  a  recent  celebration  of  the  era  of  this  confederacy, 


354  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

in  a  neighboring  State,  a  distinguished  and  venerable  ora- 
tor discoursed,  with  more  of  rhetoric  than  of  truth,  con- 
cerning what  he  was  pleased  to  term  "  the  conscientious, 
contentious  spirit "  of  the  early  fathers  of  Rhode  Island. 
But  to  what  manner  of  spirit  shall  we  attribute  this  act  of 
the  Puritans  of  New  England,  by  which  a  Christian  colony, 
of  their  own  brethren,  was  deprived  of  all  the  benefits  of 
their  neighborhood,  and  left  unprotected  in  the  wilder- 
ness, to  contend  with  merciless  savages  and  struggle  alone 
"  against  necessity's  sharp  pinch  !  "  Was  it  mere  indif- 
ference to  the  fate  of  those  whom  they  deemed  heretics 
and  outcasts  ?  Or  was  it  the  vain  hope,  that  by  the  pres- 
sure of  want,  or  the  threats  of  Indian  massacre,  the  colony 
would  yield  to  her  confederate  neighbors,  and  quietly  sub- 
mit to  be  partitioned  among  their  several  jurisdictions  ? 
Whichever  of  these  may  have  been  the  motive,  the  act 
itself  bespeaks  a  dark  and  malignant  bigotry,  which  can- 
not be  veiled,  and  for  which  it  is  in  vain  to  apologize. —  a 
bigotry  which,  indeed,  need  not  be  dwelt  upon,  amid  the 
general  blaze  of  Puritan  virtues,  but  which  we  may  well 
be  proud  to  think,  has  left  no  traces  of  its  existence  in  the 
history  or  the  character  of  Rhode  Island. 

How  different  from  all  this  is  the  spirit  which  charac- 
terized her  legislation,  even  at  the  same  gloomy  periods  of 
New  England  history  !  In  turning  to  consider  it  we  seem 
to  have  advanced  a  whole  age  in  the  progress  of  civil  and 
intellectual  freedom.  Take  a  single  illustration.  In 
1656,  Massachusetts  commenced  the  persecution  of  the 
Quakers,  which  soon  extended  through  all  New  England. 
Banished  from  every  other  colony,  they  fled  to  Rhode 
Island,  where,  though  they  had  but  few  sympathies  with 
the  inhabitants,  they  were  kindly  received,  and  were  ad- 
mitted to  all  the  privileges  of  citizens  and  freemen.  But 
the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  hunted  them 
even  here.  In  two  several  appeals,  they  urged  the  author- 


ADDRESS.  355 

ities  of  this  colony,  by  every  motive  that  could  be  ad- 
dressed to  the  self-interest  of  a  community,  to  join  in  the 
general  persecution.  But  with  what  dignity  does  the 
Legislature  reply :  "  As  concerning  these  Quakers  (so 
called),  which  are  now  among  us,  we  have  no  law  whereby 
to  punish  any  for  only  declaring,  by  words,  their  minds 
and  understandings,  concerning  the  things  and  ways  of 
God  as  to  salvation  and  an  eternal  condition."  And, 
when  finding  all  persuasives  vain,  the  Commissioners,  ir- 
ritated at  her  inflexible  adherence  to  her  noble  princi- 
ples, threaten  to  suspend  all  intercourse,  and  thus  dry  up 
the  very  sources  of  subsistence  to  the  colony,  the  As- 
sembly calmly  make  their  appeal  to  "  his  Highness  and 
honorable  council "  in  England,  and,  through  their  agent, 
ask  that  they  "  may  not  be  compelled  to  exercise  any  civil 
power  over  men's  consciences,  so  long  as  human  orders,  in 
point  of  civility,  are  not  corrupted  or  violated  ;  which," 
say  they,  "  our  neighbors  about  us  do  frequently  practice, 
whereof  many  of  us  have  large  experience,  and  do  judge 
it  to  be  no  less  than  a  point  of  absolute  cruelty" 

Now,  look  along  the  history  of  mankind,  up  to  the  lat- 
ter half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  where  else  do  you 
find  that  language  like  this  had  ever  proceeded  from  a 
legislative  assembly  ?  Yet,  strange  to  say,  the  age  was 
preeminently  distinguished  for  its  attention  to  religious 
truth  and  to  the  rights  of  conscience.  England  was  rent 
by  civil  wars,  of  which  these  rights  were  professed  as  the 
sustaining  principle.  Her  people  were  divided  into  four 
great  parties,  the  Roman  Catholics,  the  Episcopalians,  the 
Presbyterians,  and  the  Independents,  all  of  whom  were 
contending  for  what  they  called  freedom  of  conscience ; 
and  many  a  noble  spirit  had  been  offered  up  as  a  sacrifice 
to  the  cause,  on  the  scaffold,  or  on  the  field  of  battle. 
Here,  too,  upon  the  barren  coasts  of  New  England,  were 
hardy  settlements,  just  springing  into  vigorous  existence, 


356  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

each  of  which  had  been  planted  for  the  freedom  of  the 
conscience.  Yet  on  a  closer  inspection,  the  freedom  which 
all  were  pursuing  proves  to  be  freedom  only  for  them- 
selves, not  for  others.  It  was  freedom  to  rear  their  own 
altars  and  to  offer  their  own  worship.  Beyond  this  it  did 
not  go.  And  the  student  of  history  turns  from  them  all ; 
from  the  religious  parties  then  struggling  for  ascendancy 
in  England,  and  from  the  colonies  which  had  sprung  up 
on  the  shores  of  America,  and  finds  here  alone,  in  a  col- 
ony which  had  been  neglected  by  her  mother  and  despised 
by  all  her  sisters,  the  solitary  refuge  for  true  soul-liberty 
—  that  unlimited  intellectual  freedom,  higher  than  mere 
toleration  —  which  makes  all  opinions  equal  in  the  eye  of 
the  law,  and  which  forbids  the  civil  power  to  touch  the 
inviolable  sanctuary  of  the  conscience. 

Thus  peculiar  —  far  more  so  than  has  been  generally 
understood  —  was  the  spirit  of  the  early  fathers  of  this 
State.  The  memorials  of  their  labors,  of  their  legislation, 
of  their  sufferings  for  the  maintenance  of  this  principle  — 
which  they  alone  of  all  the  world  understood  and  cher- 
ished —  are  worthy  of  the  minutest  inquiry.  They  can- 
not be  too  thoroughly  explored,  or  too  carefully  treasured 
up  in  the  depositories  of  historic  lore. 

But,  in  addition  to  the  greatness  and  value  of  the  prin- 
ciples at  issue,  there  is  another  consideration,  which  urges 
us  perhaps,  still  more  strongly,  to  the  careful  collection 
and  preservation  of  the  materials,  especially  for  our  early 
history.  It  is  found  in  the  fact  that  these  principles,  and 
the  characters  of  the  men  who  here  asserted  them,  have 
been  singularly  misrepresented  and  misunderstood.  The 
literature  of  New  England,  at  that  day,  was  confined  to 
Massachusetts  and  Plymouth,  and  their  early  annalists 
seem  never  to  have  dreamed,  that  a  faithful  narrative  of 
the  planting  and  growth  of  this  heterodox  colony,  where 
all  sorts  of  consciences  were  tolerated,  would  ever  be  of 


ADDRESS.  357 

the  slightest  interest  or  benefit  to  mankind.  Hence  it 
happened,  that  our  early  history  became  known  to  the 
world,  mainly  through  the  imperfect  sketches  of  Winthrop 
or  Hubbard,  the  prejudiced  statements  of  Morton,  the 
controversial  sarcasms  of  Mr.  Cotton,  and  the  ridiculous, 
and  sometimes  vulgar  jibes,  of  Cotton  Mather.  Many  of 
these  misrepresentations  have  been  corrected  by  subse- 
quent writers,  in  the  same  States  from  which  they  ema- 
nated ;  and  the  fame  of  Rhode  Island  has  been  brightened 
by  their  labors.  But  she  still  appeals  to  her  own  sons 
for  a  fuller  vindication  ;  she  claims  it  for  the  lessons  she 
has  taught  them,  for  the  inheritance  of  freedom  she  has 
transmitted  to  them.  From  these  eminences  in  her  social 
progress  to  which  she  has  attained,  she  points  us  back 
to  the  scattered  graves  of  her  original  Planters,  and  de- 
mands of  us  that  we  build  monuments  to  their  memory ; 
that  we  guard  their  fame,  and  transmit  their  principles, 
undisguised  and  unperverted,  in  the  imperishable  records 
of  history. 

Among  these  early  fathers  of  the  State,  I  may  here 
mention  one,  whose  fame  has  been  too  much  neglected, 
but  whose  character  has  descended  to  us,  in  the  memory 
of  his  deeds,  embalmed  with  the  purest  associations  of 
devoted  patriotism  and  exalted  virtue.  I  refer  to  Dr. 
John  Clarke,  of  Newport  —  the  associate  of  Eoger  Wil- 
liams —  the  procurer  of  the  second  Charter  —  the  tried 
friend  of  the  colony,  at  a  time  when  friendship  for  her 
was  the  sacrifice  of  all  else  that  New  England  had  to  be- 
stow. His  life  ought  long  ago  to  have  been  written,  and 
every  lineament  of  his  pure  and  spotless  character,  on 
which  even  enmity  and  envy  have  fastened  no  reproach, 
should  have  been  held  forth  to  the  respect  and  admira- 
tion of  those  who  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  labors.  A  scholar, 
bred  probably  at  one  of  England's  ancient  Universities  — 
a  physician,  accustomed  to  the  practice  of  his  profession 


358  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

in  the  circles  of  the  British  Metropolis  —  a  teacher  of  re- 
ligion, despised  and  persecuted  by  those  among  whom  he 
had  cast  his  lot  —  he  came  hither,  the  mild  and  benignant 
advocate  of  religious  freedom,  and,  next  to  the  exiled 
founder  of  Providence,  was  the  truest  friend,  and  the  most 
generous  benefactor  of  Rhode  Island.  For  twelve  troubled 
years  he  resided  in  England  as  the  representative  of  the 
colony,  supporting  himself  during  all  this  period  by  his 
own  labors,  and  by  the  mortgage  of  his  estate  in  Newport. 
He  was  an  intimate  associate  of  many  of  the  eminent  men 
of  the  time,  and  was  doubtless  a  witness  of  many  of  the 
stirring  scenes  of  the  English  Revolution.  By  his  un- 
wavering fidelity,  by  his  winning  manners,  and  his  diplo- 
matic skill,  he  maintained  the  rights  of  the  colony,  ainid 
the  changes  and  tumults  of  a  revolutionary  age,  and  at 
length,  upon  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts,  he  succeeded 
in  obtaining  from  the  second  Charles  that  Charter  of 
civil  government  which  has  shaped  the  institutions  of  the 
State,  and  identified  itself  with  all  her  glory.  The  disin- 
terested benevolence  which  had  animated  his  life,  still 
lighted  up  its  closing  hours.  He  died  at  Newport  in 
1676,  and  in  his  last  will  bequeathed  a  handsome  estate 
"  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  and  the  bringing  up  of  chil- 
dren unto  learning." 

"  Peace  to  the  just  man's  memory  —  let  it  grow 

Greener  with  years,  and  blossom  through  the  flight 

Of  ages  ;  let  the  mimic  canvas  show 

His  calm  benevolent  features  ;  let  the  light 

Stream  on  his  deeds  of  love  that  shunned  the  sight 

Of  all  but  Heaven  ;  and  in  the  book  of  fame, 

The  glorious  record  of  his  virtues  write, 

And  hold  it  up  to  men,  and  bid  them  claim 

A  palm  like  his,  and  catch  from  him  the  hallowed  flame." 

I  have  referred  more  particularly  to  the  early  periods 
of  the  history  of  Rhode  Island,  in  illustrating  the  pecu- 
liarity of  her  position,  and  the  value  of  her  fame.  But 


ADDRESS.  359 

other  periods  are  equally  replete  with  historic  interest,  and 
present  scarcely  fewer  claims  upon  the  attention  and  the 
study  of  her  sons.  Her  participation  in  the  struggles  of 
the  Revolution  has  not  yet  been  fully  told.  All  that  may 
illustrate  the  services  she  rendered  the  cause  of  national 
independence,  whether  by  legislation  or  by  arms  ;  all  that 
embodies  the  spirit  that  made  her  the  nursery  of  heroic 
commanders  and  of  brave  troops  ;  and  all  that  may  ex- 
plain her  reluctant  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution, 
or  the  origin  and  growth  of  her  great  social  interests, 
her  commerce  and  her  manufactures,  her  education  and 
her  religion  —  all  these  should  be  faithfully  explored  and 
carefully  garnered  up,  away  from  the  reach  of  oblivion. 

There  is  also  another  period,  equally  important  to  the 
fame  of  the  State,  and  it  may  be  equally  instructive  in 
its  lessons  for  mankind,  the  memorials  of  which  we,  of 
the  present  generation,  are  especially  bound  to  preserve 
from  decay.  I  refer  to  the  recent  civil  controversy,  whose 
furious  passions  have  scarcely  yet  died  away.  Whatever 
may  be  the  opinions  we  entertain  respecting  it,  all  will 
admit  the  importance  of  treasuring  up  everything  that 
can  explain  its  origin  and  issue,  or  illustrate  its  spirit  and 
character.  We  owe  it  to  the  State,  whose  bosom  has  been 
rent,  and  whose  peace  has  been  disturbed  —  and  we  owe 
it  scarcely  less  to  the  nation,  whose  interests  are  involved 
in  the  principles  at  issue,  to  see  to  it  that  its  history  be 
faithfully  written,  not  with  the  pen  of  partisan  passion, 
or  beneath  the  narrowing  influence  of  political  prejudice  ; 
but  that  it  be  written  in  the  light  of  the  Constitution,  with 
the  spirit  of  calm  philosophy  and  discriminating  research. 
Let  everything  pertaining  to  it  be  carefully  preserved, 
that  when  in  a  future  age,  after  our  petty  interests  shall 
have  perished,  and  our  short-lived  passions  shall  have  died 
away,  the  historian  shall  come  to  trace  the  causes  of  these 
unhappy  strifes,  he  may  find  here  the  means  of  thoroughly 


360  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

understanding  the  principles  at  issue  between  the  contend- 
ing parties,  and  the  spirit  and  the  acts  that  have  marked 
the  character  of  each,  as  well  as  the  issue  that  has  sprung 
from  the  angry  passions  that  have  been  so  deeply  stirred. 
Thus  let  the  cause  be  committed  to  the  tribunals  of  pos- 
terity. Let  there  be  materials  for  removing  every  blot 
that  may  have  been  cast  upon  the  escutcheon  of  the  State, 
of  refuting  every  calumny  that  has  been  uttered  against 
her  fair  fame,  that  the  truth,  the  simple  unvarnished  truth, 
may  alone  be  committed  to  the  records  of  history. 

For  purposes  such  as  these  has  the  Rhode  Island  His- 
torical Society  been  established.  It  dates  back  to  the 
year  1822,  and  in  the  order  of  time  it  was  the  fourth  in- 
stitution of  the  kind  established  in  the  United  States.  It 
owes  its  origin  to  the  spirit  and  activity  of  a  few  true- 
hearted  sous  of  Rhode  Island,  who  chanced  to  meet  in  the 
office  of  a  gentleman  l  whose  historic  zeal,  even  then  dis- 
tinguished, has  since  led  him  onward  to  the  most  com- 
mendable labors,  and  the  most  valuable  results.  It  was 
in  the  course  of  their  conversation  that  the  suggestion 
was  first  made  of  a  Society,  whose  aim  should  be  to  collect 
and  preserve,  for  the  use  of  the  historian,  the  scattered 
memorials  of  the  successive  periods  of  our  progress  as  a 
Colony  and  a  State.  The  suggestion  was  speedily  carried 
into  effect,  and  this  Society  commenced  its  useful  career. 
Twenty-two  years  have  since  elapsed,  and,  amidst  many 
discouragements  it  has  gone  steadily  forward  in  the  prose- 
cution of  its  worthy  aims.  Though  it  has  never  occupied 
a  conspicuous  place  in  the  public  estimation,  and  its  ac- 
tive supporters  have  always  been  few,  yet  it  has  already 
done  essential  service  in  the  illustration  of  the  spirit  and 
the  characters  that  belong  to  our  early  annals.  It  has 
published  five  volumes  of  its  collections,  and  has  garnered 
up  in  its  archives  a  large  mass  of  materials,  which  have 

1  Hon.  William  R.  Staples,  author  of  the  Annals  of  Providence. 


ADDRESS.  361 

already  rendered  valuable  aid  to  writers  of  American  his- 
tory, and  among  which  the  future  historian  of  the  State 
or  of  the  country  will  find  all  that  now  remains  of  many 
a  forgotten  era  of  the  past.  Through  the  agency  of  a 
succession  of  indefatigable  secretaries  and  directors,  the 
Society  has  maintained  an  extensive  and  useful  correspon- 
dence with  similar  associations  in  this  country  and  in  for- 
eign lands.  Its  correspondence  has  rendered  signal  aid 
to  the  antiquarians  of  Denmark,  in  their  attempts  to  deci- 
pher those  mysterious  inscriptions  upon  the  rocky  shores 
of  New  England,  which  seem  to  point  back  to  the  visit 
of  some  unknown  voyagers  centuries  before  the  heroic  en- 
terprise of  Columbus.  The  aid  which  was  thus  received 
has  been  acknowledged  with  grateful  applause  by  this 
learned  association,  in  the  "  Antiquitates  Americanse,"  — 
the  magnificent  work  in  which  they  have  embodied  their 
researches  respecting  the  ante-Columbian  periods  of  Amer- 
ican history. 

After  many  efforts  and  long  delays,  the  Society,  aided 
in  part  by  private  munificence,  has  at  length  been  able  to 
rear  the  modest  structure,  whose  completion  we  have  to- 
day come  up  to  celebrate.  We  have  watched  its  progress, 
from  its  commencement  to  its  final  consummation.  In 
hope  and  in  joy  we  now  set  it  apart  to  the  purposes  for 
which  it  has  been  erected.  We  dedicate  it  to  the  muse  of 
history  —  "  the  muse  of  saintly  aspect  and  awful  form," 
who  ever  watches  over  the  fortunes  of  men,  and  guards 
the  virtues  of  humanity.  We  wish  it  to  be  a  place  of 
secure  and  perpetual  deposit,  where,  beyond  the  reach  of 
accident,  or  the  approach  of  decay,  we  may  accumulate 
all  the  materials  for  our  yet  unwritten  history.  We  would 
gather  here  all  that  can  illustrate  the  early  planting  or  the 
subsequent  growth  of  our  State,  the  lives  of  its  founders 
and  settlers,  the  manuscripts  of  its  departed  worthies,  the 
history  of  its  towns,  its  glorious  proclamations  of  religious 


362  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

liberty,  and  its  heroic  sacrifices,  both  in  peace  and  in  war. 
We  would  also  gather  here,  the  few  remaining  relics  of 
the  long  perished  race  of  Canonicus  and  Miantonomo,  and 
keep  them  as  precious  memorials  of  men,  who,  though  un- 
taught in  the  lessons  of  civilized  benevolence,  received  to 
their  rude  hospitality,  the  fathers  of  the  State,  when  Chris- 
tian pilgrims  persecuted  and  banished  them.  We  would 
also  deposit  here  everything  that  is  connected  with  the  in- 
terests of  society  within  the  limits  of  the  Commonwealth  — 
the  chronicles  of  every  controversy,  the  organs  of  every 
party,  the  wretched  sheet,  that  in  its  day  was  too  worth- 
less to  be  read,  if  so  be  it  illustrate  the  morals,  the  man- 
ners, or  the  deeds  of  the  time,  and  the  most  valuable 
volume  in  which  genius  and  wisdom  have  embodied  their 
immortal  thoughts.  We  may  hope,  too,  that  within  its 
alcoves,  "  rich  with  the  spoils  of  time,"  may  at  length  be 
seen  the  features  and  forms  of  the  men,  who  in  peace  and 
in  war  have  reflected  honor  on  the  State,  by  the  wisdom 
they  have  carried  to  the  councils,  or  the  glory  they  have 
added  to  the  name  of  the  country.  Thus,  distant  genera- 
tions may  come  up  hither,  and  while  they  study  the  me- 
morials of  the  past,  they  may  gaze  upon  the  lineaments  of 
the  men  whose  names  they  have  learned  to  identify  with 
whatever  is  heroic  in  action,  or  dignified  in  character. 

It  is  to  these  objects,  and  to  others  such  as  these,  that 
we  dedicate  this  edifice,  which  we  have  reared  in  this 
friendly  neighborhood  of  learning,  as  the  depository  of 
historic  lore.  They  are  liberal  and  noble  objects,  and 
worthy  to  command  the  respect,  and  enlist  the  efforts,  of 
an  enlightened  community.  They  are  limited  to  no  local 
bounds.  They  embrace  the  whole  territory  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  concern  as  intimately  the  settlements  on 
Rhode  Island,  the  Asylum  from  persecution  at  Warwick, 
the  romantic  legends  of  Mount  Hope  and  Narragansett, 
as  they  do  the  Plantations  of  Providence.  Whether  they 


ADDRESS.  363 

are  ever  fully  accomplished,  will  depend  on  the  efforts 
which  the  members  of  this  Society  put  forth,  and  upon  the 
sympathy  and  aid  which  we  receive  from  our  fellow-citi- 
zens throughout  the  State.  We  invite,  therefore,  the  co- 
operation of  all,  in  carrying  forward  the  work  which  we 
have  begun,  and  of  which  so  much  remains  to  be  accom- 
plished. The  State  is  the  common  parent  of  us  all,  and 
her  fame  should  be  dear  to  us  all.  That  fame,  which  two 
hundred  years  have  established,  has  at  length  been  com- 
mitted to  us,  to  guard  and  to  perpetuate.  Let  us  be  faith- 
ful to  the  trust ;  and  in  the  temple  which  literary  genius 
may  rear  to  American  History,  let  us  erect  an  humble 
shrine,  and  dedicate  it  to  Rhode  Island,  and  adorn  it  with 
her  stainless  escutcheon  of  RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM. 


ADDRESS 

AT  A  PUBLIC  MEETING  OF  THE  CITIZENS  OF  PROVIDENCE 
JUNE  7,  1856,  CALLED  TO  CONSIDER  THE  ASSAULT  UPON 
THE  HONORABLE  CHARLES  SUMNER,  IN  THE  SENATE- 
CHAMBER  AT  WASHINGTON. 

MR.  PRESIDENT  —  Your  appearance  in  the  chair  of  this 
meeting,  this  greeting  with  which  you  are  welcomed  by 
your  fellow-citizens  on  your  return  after  a  long  absence, 
again  to  take  your  place  among  us,  as  well  as  your  own 
distinct  avowal,  proclaim  that  it  is  no  common  and  no 
party  object  which  has  called  us  together  to-night.  Had 
any  such  purpose  dictated  the  meeting,  neither  you  nor 
I  might  have  participated  in  its  proceedings. 

There  are  those  among  us  to  whom  our  whole  heavens 
seem  to  be  hung  in  black,  and  our  whole  horizon  is  low- 
ering with  portentous  clouds.  But  as  you  have  so  clearly 
stated,  we  are  now  assembled  to  consider  a  single  occur- 
rence which  stands  forth  most  conspicuous  among  the 
occasions  of  public  excitements,  and  which  has  filled  all 
our  minds  with  abhorrence  and  dismay.  The  country 
has  been  dishonored  in  its  high  places,  and  its  good  name 
has  been  injured  throughout  the  civilized  world.  A  Sen- 
ator of  the  United  States  has  been  struck  down  by  the 
hand  of  brutal  violence  in  his  seat  in  the  Senate  —  a  Sen- 
ator who  represents  an  ancient  and  illustrious  Common- 
wealth, one  of  the  most  honored  in  the  sisterhood  of  the 
States,  whose  history  furnished  some  of  the  proudest 
chapters  in  our  national  annals.  The  circumstances  and 
the  place  too,  in  which  this  deed  was  perpetrated,  impart 


ADDRESS.  365 

to  it  an  ominous  and  fearful  import,  and  make  it  a  mat- 
ter of  national  concern.  It  was  done  in  no  moment  of 
excited  debate,  in  no  impulse  of  sudden  passion,  but  it 
was  deliberate  and  cold-blooded,  plotted  and  consulted  be- 
forehand, and  meditated  for  two  days  and  nights.  Or 
rather,  as  the  evidence  has  fully  shown,  it  was  a  con- 
spiracy^ not  alone  against  the  safety  and  life  of  a  single 
citizen  or  a  single  Senator,  but  against  free  speech  and 
free  legislation  in  the  Capitol  of  the  nation.  Look  at  that 
single  scene  in  the  gate-house  of  the  Capitol  grounds,  on 
the  morning  of  the  day  which  witnessed  this  unparalleled 
outrage,  and  see  the  perpetrator  plotting  with  his  accom- 
plice, and  consulting  how  he  may  best  accomplish  his 
cowardly  purpose,  and  strike  his  victim  when  most  unpre- 
pared and  defenseless.  These  men,  thus  stealthily  lurk- 
ing at  the  gates  of  the  Capitol,  are  members  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  ;  but  if  they  were  not,  how  should  we 
characterize  them  but  as  a  highwayman  and  his  accom- 
plice lying  in  wait  for  their  prey  ? 

The  outrage,  too,  borrows  a  still  darker  atrocity  from 
the  place  in  which  it  was  at  length  committed.  There  is 
a  peculiar  sanctity  attached  to  the  Senate  House  of  this 
Republic.  It  was  long  ago  described  as  the  "  sanctuary 
of  the  Constitution,  —  the  citadel  of  Order,  Liberty,  and 
Law."  It  is  the  place  where  the  representatives  of  sov- 
ereign States  meet  on  the  basis  of  perfect  equality,  where 
the  smallest  and  weakest  members  of  the  Union  are  raised 
to  the  rank  of  the  largest  and  the  most  powerful,  —  where 
Delaware  and  Rhode  Island  take  counsel  as  equals  with 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  with  Ohio  and  Virginia. 
It  was  in  that  most  sacred  chamber  of  the  government 
that  the  assassin  entered  and  waited  his  opportunity,  and 
at  length  dealt  his  bludgeon  blows  upon  the  head  of  the 
defenseless  Senator,  till  he  fell  prostrate  and  bleeding 
upon  the  floor 


366  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

This  is  the  dastardly  outrage,  this  the  humiliating, 
shameful  spectacle,  which  we  have  come  together  to-night 
to  consider.  Those  blows  fell  not  alone  on  the  manly 
brow  of  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts.  They  fell  on 
the  head  of  this  Republic.  They  descended  on  the  honor 
and  dignity,  the  peace  and  security,  of  the  American  peo- 
ple, on  you  and  on  me,  fellow-citizens.  We  to-night  con- 
fess the  humiliation  and  suffering  they  have  inflicted, 
and  demand  their  redress  and  the  utmost  and  immediate 
punishment  of  their  author.  We  claim  it  for  the  dignity 
and  purity  of  the  government  under  which  we  live,  and 
with  millions  around  us  we  claim  it  for  ourselves,  our 
honor  and  our  good  name  as  a  people.  But,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, it  is  asked  what  redress  can  be  had  and  what  pun- 
ishment can  be  inflicted  on  the  perpetrator  of  a  deed  that 
has  thus  disgraced  the  American  name,  and  dishonored 
and  outraged  the  American  people.  This  is  a  question 
which  certainly  claims  the  thoughtful  consideration  of 
every  citizen.  Let  us  consider  it  as  its  gravity  and  im- 
portance demand.  In  speaking  of  it,  I  have  no  redress 
and  no  punishment  to  suggest  which  is  at  variance  with 
the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  land,  or  with  the  com- 
mon obligations  which  rest  upon  us,  whether  as  citizens 
or  as  States.  I  still  believe  in  and  reverence  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  and  still  regard  it,  when 
administered  in  its  true  spirit,  as  containing  or  allowing 
abundant  remedy  for  every  national  wrong.  What,  then, 
ought  to  be  done  in  the  case  we  are  now  considering  ? 

First  of  all  then,  sir,  we  can  and  we  do  demand  that 
this  man  and  his  accomplice  be  punished  by  the  House 
of  Representatives  to  which  they  belong,  to  the  full  ex- 
tent of  its  power.  The  question  is  now  pending  in  that 
House,  and  no  graver  question  will  receive  its  considera- 
tion while  its  session  lasts.  Its  committee  has  reported 
by  its  majority  and  by  its  minority,  and  it  must  choose 


ADDRESS.  367 

between  the  two.  Those  reports  are  before  the  country, 
and  are  at  this  moment  receiving  the  verdict  of  millions 
of  the  people.  The  former,  I  think,  is  all  that  could  be 
desired  to  indicate  the  insulted  dignity  both  of  the  House 
and  the  Senate.  It  recites,  as  we  all  know,  the  disgust- 
ing story  of  this  wrong,  and  gives  the  testimony  of  those 
who  witnessed  it.  It  declares  the  privileges  which  the 
Constitution  assigns  to  the  legislators  of  this  Republic  to 
have  been  shamefully  and  wantonly  violated,  and  closes 
with  the  unqualified  resolves  that  the  principal  offender 
in  this  great  outrage  be  expelled  from  the  House,  and 
that  his  accessories  be  censured  by  solemn  vote.  Let  that 
be  done,  and  the  House  may  again  challenge  the  respect 
of  the  country.  The  latter  of  these  reports  presents  an 
opposite  view,  very  different  in  its  spirit  and  in  the  con- 
clusion to  which  it  comes.  It  declares  that  no  privilege 
has  been  violated,  that  no  offense  has  been  committed, 
and  that  nothing  need  be  done.  It  covers  the  whole  trans- 
action with  palliations  and  special  pleadings,  and  thus 
seeks  to  hide  from  public  view  the  intolerable  wrong 
which  it  involves.  It  is  signed  by  two  names,  one  of  them 
hitherto  a  name  of  distinction  and  honor;  but  I  trust 
that  no  authority  which  it  thus  acquires  can  save  it  from 
the  reprobation  which  it  deserves.  It  cites  the  prece- 
dents it  employs  from  the  parliamentary  history  of  Eng- 
land, to  show  that  the  House  has  no  power  in  a  case  like 
this.  But  it  passes  by  at  least  one  most  conspicuous  in- 
stance in  our  own  history,  in  the  early  and  palmy  days 
of  the  American  Senate,  which  is  exceedingly  pertinent 
and  appropriate,  and  which  many  gentlemen  around  me 
will  readily  recall.  In  the  summer  of  1797,  a  few  months 
after  the  close  of  the  second  administration  of  President 
Washington,  and  while  the  shadow  of  his  unsullied 
dignity  and  his  great  character  still  rested  upon  the  gov- 
ernment he  had  so  lately  left,  the  Senate,  with  but  one 


368  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

dissenting  voice,  expelled  William  Blount,  a  Senator 
from  Tennessee,  then  but  lately  admitted  to  the  Union. 
He  had  violated  no  privilege  of  either  House  of  Congress ; 
he  had  committed  no  crime  at  the  seat  of  the  government ; 
nor  had  he  been  condemned,  nor  even  indicted,  before  any 
judicial  tribunal  in  the  country.  As  a  land  speculator 
and  a  political  adventurer,  he  had  headed  a  combination, 
for  mere  money-making  and  selfish  ends,  to  transfer  the 
territory  beyond  the  Mississippi  from  the  jurisdiction  of 
Spain  to  that  of  England,  and  had  thus  violated  the  trea- 
ties and  compromised  the  neutrality  of  the  government. 
To  make  the  precedent  still  more  striking,  the  offense 
had  been  committed  while  he  was  acting  as  governor 
of  the  territory  which  now,  as  a  sovereign  State,  he  was 
representing  in  the  Senate.  Charges  were  preferred  to 
that  grave  and  reverend  body  by  the  action  of  the  House 
below,  and  Blount  was  expelled  from  his  seat  because 
his  conduct  in  a  public  position  had  dishonored  the  coun- 
try, and  was  incompatible  with  the  duties  and  office  of  a 
Senator.  Let  that  precedent  be  now  followed ;  and  if 
there  be  no  other  on  record,  the  perpetrator  of  this  recent 
outrage  will  be  driven  from  his  seat  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  the  indignant  vote  of  every  member. 
Unless  this  be  done,  a  stain  of  dishonor  will  still  rest 
upon  the  body.  A  sense  of  foul  and  unforgotten  wrong 
will  still  rankle  like  iron  in  the  heart  of  the  nation,  and 
ruffianism  will  be  installed  at  the  Capitol. 

But,  sir,  this  man  has  also  violated  the  laws  which  are 
provided  for  the  common  security  of  us  all.  Apart  from 
the  privileges  of  rank  and  station,  I  hope  it  is  still  a  crime 
in  the  District  of  Columbia  to  waylay  and  assault,  and 
beat  to  unconsciousness  and  almost  to  death,  an  American 
citizen,  even  the  humblest  that  approaches  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment. If  it  be  not,  it  is  a  matter  which  it  concerns  us 
all  to  know.  We  have  a  right,  then,  to  expect  that  this 


ADDRESS.  369 

man,  whatever  he  may  be  in  other  respects,  will  be  tried 
and  punished  as  a  criminal  under  the  laws  which  Congress 
has  enacted,  and  before  the  tribunals  which  Congress  has 
established  for  the  District  of  Columbia.  Let  that  be 
done  and  another  item  is  added  to  the  redress  which  this 
outrage  demands,  and  all  will  be  done  which  constituted 
authorities  and  law  can  do. 

But,  Mr.  President,  it  will  be  said  that  even  that  is  but 
an  imperfect  redress  for  a  crime  like  this.  I  admit  it,  sir, 
and  I  think  there  yet  remains  another  and  a  severer  pun- 
ishment than  any  which  courts  of  law  can  impose.  Their 
heaviest  inflictions  are  endured  and  are  soon  at  an  end. 
But  there  exists  in  the  moral  nature  of  man,  and  in  the 
tone  of  civilized  society,  an  instrument  of  retribution 
whose  agency  cannot  be  escaped,  whose  power  continues 
while  life  lasts,  or  memory  and  name  endure.  This  in- 
strument is  the  scorn  and  abhorrence  of  high-minded  men. 
Tell  me  not  of  prisons  and  gibbets,  as  if  these  were  the 
punishment  of  final  resort.  There  is  a  direr  and  more 
fearful  retribution  in  the  loss  of  an  honorable  standing, 
in  the  blight  of  a  reputation,  in  the  anathema  of  a  proud 
name,  in  desertion,  neglect,  and  contempt  from  respecta- 
ble men.  We  are  not  without  signal  examples  of  pun- 
ishment like  this  that  may  well  now  be  recalled.  That 
traitor  general  of  the  Revolution  who  surrendered  West 
Point  to  the  enemy,  and  then  led  an  expedition  against 
the  inhabitants  of  the  hills  and  hamlets  where  his  own 
infancy  had  been  nursed,  —  look  at  him  as,  years  after- 
wards, when  the  Revolution  was  ended,  and  with  the  price 
of  his  treachery  in  his  hands,  he  is  introduced  as  a  private 
man  upon  the  floor  of  the  British  House  of  Commons, 
and  see  him  quail  and  wither  before  the  scorn  with  which 
a  member  then  speaking  folds  his  arms  and  declares,  "  I 
will  not  speak  while  the  air  of  this  House  is  tainted  with 
the  presence  of  a  traitor."  Think  you  he  did  not  then 


370  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

wish  that  he  had  fallen  in  battle,  or  even  been  captured 
and  hanged  in  the  place  of  that  youthful  officer  whom  his 
betrayed  commander  was  obliged  to  sacrifice  in  his  stead  ? 
Or  take  another  example  of  a  similar  retribution.  It  is 
now  some  fifty  years  since  a  man  who  had  been  honored 
with  his  country's  favor,  inflamed  by  curious  and  venge- 
ful passions,  challenged  and  shot  in  mortal  combat  the 
foremost  statesman  of  the  age.  He  was  visited  with  no 
punishment  by  the  laws  of  the  land.  But  his  deed  had 
outraged  the  moral  sentiments  of  a  great  civilized  com- 
munity, and  through  the  thirty  years  of  his  remaining  life 
he  lived  a  wretched  and  blighted  man.  Forsaken  almost 
of  heaven  and  earth,  childless  and  solitary,  he  lingered  to 
old  age  in  the  midst  of  a  great  metropolis,  neglected, 
avoided,  hated  and  despised.  This  is  the  heaviest  punish- 
ment which  man  can  inflict  for  great  wrongs  to  justice, 
freedom,  and  to  humanity.  So,  fellow-citizens,  let  it  be 
with  him  who  lays  the  parricidal  hand  of  violence  upon 
the  embodied  majesty  of  the  Republic.  Let  all  men  avoid 
him  and  turn  away  from  him,  in  the  halls  of  the  legisla- 
ture, in  the  marts  of  business,  and  in  the  circles  of  society. 
Let  an  anathema,  like  that  of  the  ancient  Church,  rest 
upon  him  so  long  as  he  lives,  and  let  his  name  be  coupled 
only  with  oblivion  or  contempt.  When  all  this  has  been 
done  the  redress  is  complete,  and  the  justice  of  the  earth 
is  satisfied. 

I  know  not,  sir,  what  existing  organizations  will  favor 
demands  like  these.  It  may  be  that  none  will  do  it.  I 
remember  to  have  read  a  treatise  written  by  an  eminent 
Christian  statesman,  still  living  on  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope, on  what  he  styled  "  the  Church  of  the  Future." 
Wearied  with  the  divisions  and  distractions  of  Christen- 
dom, disheartened  with  its  want  of  union,  its  want  of 
energy,  and  its  want  of  action,  he  meditated  in  rapturous 
vision,  and  wrote  with  fervid  eloquence,  upon  the  future 


ADDRESS.  371 

Church  which  was  yet  to  arise  to  embody  the  spirit  of  Him 
who  spake  as  never  man  spake,  to  present  the  lineaments 
of  our  holy  religion,  and  to  unite  the  faithful  of  every 
land  in  carrying  blessings  to  all  the  world.  So,  sir,  it 
may  be,  we  must  wait  for  some  party  of  the  future,  to  en- 
shrine in  itself  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  to  unite  all 
"good  men  and  true,"  from  every  State,  and  to  hold 
forth  to  the  world  the  fair  form  of  American  freedom  and 
American  civilization.  But  if  the  vision  should  be  too 
long  delayed,  if  violence  and  barbarism  shall  continue  to 
encroach  unresisted,  we,  sir,  are  still  to  stand  fast  in  the 
liberty  wherewith  we  have  been  made  free.  Dwelling  on 
the  soil  that  was  purchased  with  our  fathers'  blood,  we  are 
never  to  yield,  but  still  to  show  that  the  same  blood  is  not 
yet  exhausted  in  our  veins.  Thus,  and  thus  alone,  can 
we,  as  citizens  of  the  Republic,  be  true  to  ourselves,  to 
our  country,  and  to  God. 


ADDEESS  AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  RHODE 
ISLAND  HOSPITAL,   OCTOBER  1,  1868. 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  AND  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : 

WE  have  come  together  to-day  to  celebrate  the  opening 
of  the  Rhode  Island  Hospital ;  to  congratulate  each  other 
on  the  completion  of  this  noble  structure,  and  in  devout 
gratitude  and  humble  faith  to  consecrate  it  to  the  benefi- 
cent work  for  which  it  has  been  erected.  It  bears  the 
name  of  the  State ;  it  has  been  aided  by  personal  contri- 
butions from  every  part  of  the  State  ;  and  in  the  compre- 
hensive and  catholic  spirit  of  the  State,  it  is  designed  to 
be  an  asylum  for  all  who  may  need  its  healing  care.  We 
gather  to  it,  therefore,  with  the  liveliest  interest  and  the 
fondest  hope,  and  hail  it  as  the  grandest  and  most  benef- 
icent work  which  Rhode  Island  charity  has  thus  far 
achieved.  We  gaze  with  delight  upon  the  graceful  pro- 
portions of  its  well-chosen  architecture.  We  survey  with 
the  fullest  satisfaction  its  airy  pavilions,  its  spacious  and 
sun-lighted  wards,  and  their  admirable  appointments  for 
the  convenience  and  comfort  of  those  who  are  to  be  its 
inmates.  We  contemplate  with  pleasure  the  rare  salubrity 
of  its  situation,  and  the  ample  grounds  which  environ  it, 
with  their  capacities  for  lawn,  and  garden,  and  park,  yet 
to  be  developed.  We  recall  with  gratitude  the  generous 
spirits  who  first  conceived  it,  the  earnest  and  self-denying 
men  who  solicited  its  funds,  and  the  faithful  and  laborious 
guardians  who  have  given  to  it  their  daily  care,  and  who 
now  present  it  to  us  as  their  completed  work,  —  their  dele- 
gated trust,  most  judiciously  and  honorably  fulfilled.  As 


ADDRESS.  373 

fellow-laborers  and  sharers  together  in  the  ennobling  en- 
terprise, we  enter  with  them  into  the  rare  felicities  of  this 
occasion  ;  and  as  citizens  of  the  community  which  it  is 
designed  to  bless,  we  behold  with  joy  and  pride  these 
doors  thrown  open  to-day  for  all  who  may  need  the  com- 
fort and  care,  the  tender  nursing  and  the  skillful  healing, 
which  are  here  to  be  dispensed  in  all  future  time. 

A  hospital  for  the  treatment  of  the  infirm  and  the  sick 
may  well  be  selected  as  the  most  genuine  and  appropriate 
manifestation  of  the  Christian  civilization  which  we  have 
inherited.  No  other  charity  is  so  strictly  of  Christian 
origin,  or  illustrates  so  conspicuously  that  new  spirit  of 
universal  benevolence  which  Christianity  first  breathed 
into  the  world.  The  splendid  paganisms  of  antiquity 
have  left  their  characteristic  monuments  of  genius  and 
skill,  of  wealth  and  power.  Majestic  structures  whose 
ruins  now  lie  along  the  track  of  time,  proclaim  the  great 
ideas  and  the  heroic  endeavors  of  those  ages  on  which 
Christianity  had  not  dawned.  But  in  all  their  magnifi- 
cence they  bore  no  fruit  like  this.  Humane  maxims  were 
not  wanting  in  their  literature  and  philosophy,  kindly 
sentiments  were  not  unknown  in  their  domestic  or  their 
civil  life.  But  neither  India  nor  Egypt,  neither  Greece 
nor  Italy,  could  point  to  a  single  spot  in  their  storied  soil 
which  was  consecrated  to  the  care  of  the  injured  and  the 
healing  of  the  sick,  —  the  relief  of  human  suffering  and 
the  saving  of  human  life.  Their  civilizations,  it  is  true, 
recognized,  in  some  imperfect  degree,  the  value  of  the  hu- 
man being  to  society  as  a  producer  of  happiness  to  others, 
as  a  defender  of  the  state,  and  a  laborer  for  the  common 
weal.  But  they  were  wholly  indifferent  to  his  transcen- 
dent value  to  himself  as  a  creature  of  God,  with  a  proba- 
tion on  earth  and  an  immortal  life  to  come.  They  called 
into  exercise  no  sentiments  of  comprehensive  charity,  and 
made  no  recognition  of  anything  like  brotherhood  among 


374  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

men.  They  utterly  failed,  as  every  mere  material  civili- 
zation must  fail,  in  developing  that  larger  and  higher  hu- 
manity which  overleaps  the  barriers  of  country  and  race, 
which  rises  above  distinctions  of  caste  and  condition, 
which  gathers  to  its  embrace  the  outcast  and  forsaken, 
and  bestows  its  nursing  and  care,  its  costly  medicines  and 
its  healing  skill,  on  the  sick  and  the  insane,  on  the  maimed 
and  the  injured,  who  would  otherwise  perish  in  penury 
and  neglect.  Man  learned  his  true  relations  to  his  brother 
man  only  from  the  Divine  Redeemer.  The  grand  reci- 
procities and  charities  of  human  life  were  so  constantly 
reiterated  in  his  teachings,  so  sublimely  generalized  and 
exemplified  in  his  career,  that  the  practice  of  them  be- 
came inseparable  from  Christianity.  It  was  of  charity  to 
the  sick,  the  destitute,  and  the  imprisoned,  —  those  from 
whom  others  turned  away  with  indifference  or  contempt, 
—  that  He  uttered  the  words  which  will  not  cease  to  be  re- 
peated through  all  the  ages  of  history  :  "  Inasmuch  as  ye 
have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren, 
ye  have  done  it  unto  me"  It  is  this  broader  and  higher 
benevolence  which  was  thus  taught  to  men  —  this  feeling 
that  whoever  is  forsaken  or  in  want,  whoever  is  stricken 
with  injury  or  disease,  is  our  neighbor  and  our  brother,  — 
it  is  this  that  has  prompted  the  great  charities  of  modern 
civilization  and  has  distinguished  this  civilization  from  all 
which  preceded  it. 

But  more  than  this  is  true.  The  peculiar  charity  which 
is  here  illustrated  is  that  which  is  most  conspicuously  char- 
acteristic of  Christianity.  The  feeding  of  the  hungry  had 
been  already  recognized  both  as  a  virtue  and  a  necessity. 
It  had  been  made  an  institution  of  the  State,  and  in  all 
the  great  nations  of  antiquity  whole  classes  of  the  popula- 
tion received  their  daily  bread  either  from  public  or  from 
private  bounty.  Christianity  did  not  fail  to  commend  a 
charity  which  became  so  necessary  amidst  the  miseries  of 


ADDRESS.  375 

the  world.  But  its  highest  sanctions  and  its  divinest  bene- 
dictions were  reserved  for  that  other  benevolence  which 
carries  relief  to  the  sufferings  and  healing  to  the  diseases 
with  which  man  is  everywhere  so  grievously  afflicted.  It 
has  been  well  remarked  that  there  were  but  two  occasions 
on  which  our  Lord  exerted  his  miraculous  power  to  feed  the 
hungry  multitudes  who  so  often  thronged  his  path ;  while 
the  occasions  were  innumerable  on  which  He  stretched 
forth  his  hand  to  restore  the  maimed  and  to  heal  the  sick. 
He  wrought  no  miracle  that  set  aside  the  law  which  makes 
subsistence  dependent  on  industry  and  prudence.  He  fed 
the  multitudes  only  when  far  from  home  and  in  a  desert 
place,  and  because,  having  come  to  hear  his  teachings, 
they  were  apparently  dependent  on  his  hospitality  and 
care.  Not  so,  however,  with  his  miraculous  healing.  The 
lame  walked,  the  blind  saw,  the  lepers  were  cleansed, 
those  who  were  smitten  with  any  disease  that  visits  the 
human  frame  were  made  whole,  whenever  they  sought  his 
marvelous  interposition.  In  city  and  in  village,  in  the 
market  place  and  in  the  temple,  in  the  house  and  by  the 
wayside,  his  mysterious  power  was  ever  ready  to  arrest 
the  wasting  of  disease  and  to  avert  the  sufferings  it  pro- 
duced. And  when  He  separated  his  chosen  apostles  and 
endued  them  with  divine  gifts  like  his  own,  He  bade  them 
go  forth  on  two  grand  errands  of  mercy  to  men ;  the  one 
to  preach  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  other  to  heal  all  man- 
ner of  diseases.  To  do  these  two,  the  latter  as  truly  as 
the  former,  became  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of 
the  new  religion,  and  wherever  it  was  received  among 
men  the  practice  of  an  exalted  charity  was  as  unfailing 
among  Christians  as  their  belief  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 

The  new  society  which  received  these  grand  ideas  and 
enshrined  this  universal  charity  was  unlike  any  other  that 
had  existed  in  the  world,  and  from  it  have  sprung  the 
most  cherished  social  institutions  of  our  modern  life.  It 


376  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

everywhere  wrought  a  social  transformation  which  no  his- 
tory has  described  and  no  imagination  has  fully  conceived. 
It  extended  itself  into  all  countries  and  among  all  races ; 
and  yet,  even  amidst  the  iron  separations  of  ancient  ranks, 
to  be  a  Christian,  of  whatever  kindred  or  clime,  in  all  the 
early  years  of  the  Church,  was  a  passport  to  every  Chris- 
tian home  in  the  world.  At  a  later  period,  in  all  the 
chief  centres  of  the  ever-widening  Christendom,  the  hos- 
pitality which  every  believer  had  extended  to  all  his  breth- 
ren was  intrusted  to  a  few  who  acted  for  the  others,  and 
at  length  it  was  concentrated  at  certain  well-known  places, 
and  freely  dispensed  to  all  who  sought  it  there.  The 
hospital  thus  arose  as  a  necessity  of  the  times,  to  do  for 
Christians  in  sickness  or  in  distress,  when  far  from  home, 
what  could  no  longer  be  done  by  private  hospitality.  It 
was  at  first  denounced  as  a  reproach  and  a  proof  of  de- 
clining benevolence,  but  it  met  a  great  and  growing  want, 
and  the  princes  and  ecclesiastics  of  Christendom  gave  it 
their  favor  and  bestowed  upon  it  their  munificence.  It 
became  connected  with  every  monastery  that  was  estab- 
lished, and  the  blessings  which  it  thus  dispensed  consti- 
tute perhaps  the  humanest  service  which  the  monastic 
orders  of  the  Middle  Age  rendered  to  mankind.  And 
when  in  later  times  the  cross,  once  so  humble  and  de- 
spised, became  the  badge  of  empire  and  was  blazoned  on 
the  banners  of  armies,  even  crusading  knighthood  did  not 
forget  the  care  and  nursing  of  the  sick,  which,  more  than 
all  things  else,  emblemed  the  religion  it  sought  to  propa- 
gate. 

But  an  institution  for  the  healing  of  the  sick  and  the 
care  of  the  injured  must  be  an  expression  of  something 
more  than  Christian  benevolence  alone.  It  must  also  be 
the  embodiment  of  every  device  and  arrangement  which 
science  has  discovered  or  art  has  conti'ived  for  the  allevia- 
tion of  suffering  and  the  restoration  of  health.  Christian 


ADDRESS.  377 

philanthropy  prompts  the  enterprise,  but  it  is  science  that 
presides  over  its  accomplishment  and  fits  it  for  its  high 
ends.  Civilization  must  lavish  upon  it  its  choicest  treas- 
ures, both  of  humanity  and  of  knowledge,  in  making  it  all 
that  it  ought  to  be.  The  earliest  hospital  of  Western 
Europe  is  said  to  have  been  founded  by  the  Empress 
Helena,  —  a  native  of  Britain  and  the  mother  of  Constan- 
tine.  But  in  all  save  the  motive  that  prompted  it,  how 
different  must  it  have  been  from  any  one  of  those  hospitals 
which  another  British  lady,  in  our  own  time,  established 
for  her  countrymen  at  Scutari,  with  a  zeal  so  enlightened 
and  a  success  so  beneficent  that  her  woman's  name  shines, 
above  that  of  any  general  or  any  statesman,  as  the  most 
heroic  and  famous  in  the  annals  of  the  Crimean  War !  In 
the  cloistered  hall  which  the  Benedictine  monks  set  apart, 
in  every  monastery  which  they  built,  for  the  stranger  and 
the  invalid  who  should  seek  their  hospitality  and  require 
their  care,  we  recognize  the  same  benevolence  which  Chris- 
tianity always  inspires  in  its  votaries.  They  toiled  as 
faithfully,  they  sacrificed  as  generously,  as  philanthropists 
in  any  later  age.  But  how  often  were  their  pious  pur- 
poses wholly  thwarted  and  their  toilsome  philanthropy 
well  nigh  wasted  for  the  want  of  knowledge  of  the  work 
in  which  they  were  engaged  !  The  same  is  true  of  those 
representatives  of  the  Church  who  accompanied  the  cru- 
sading armies  in  order  to  restore  the  sick  and  care  for  the 
wounded.  They  bore  the  spirit  of  humanity  into  the 
scenes  of  Moslem  war,  and  made  care  for  human  suffer- 
ing a  knightly  and  chivalrous  distinction.  Beyond  this, 
however,  and  the  services  which  it  involved,  they  were 
unable  to  go;  and  the  armies  they  accompanied  wasted 
away  on  the  plains  of  Palestine,  as  if  poisoned  by  the 
very  air  they  breathed.  Now  it  is  only  when  we  compare 
the  apartment  of  the  sick  in  some  Benedictine  monastery 
with  a  structure  like  this  in  which  we  are  to-day  assembled, 


378  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

or  place  the  kindly  services  of  the  knights  of  St.  John  in 
the  Crusades  beside  the  manifold  ministries  of  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission  in  our  Civil  War,  that  we  are 
able  to  appreciate  how  much  the  advancement  of  human 
knowledge,  and  the  improvements  which  have  been  made 
in  every  science  and  every  art,  have  enabled  Christian 
benevolence  to  achieve  for  the  relief  of  suffering  and  the 
healing  of  disease.  Comparisons  such  as  these  fully  jus- 
tify the  claim  we  make  for  a  great  hospital,  as,  in  our  own 
day,  the  truest  and  most  comprehensive  exponent  that  can 
be  named,  alike  of  the  humanity  and  the  piety,  the  science 
and  the  art,  which  constitute  the  glory  of  Christian  civili- 
zation. No  other  institution  that  exists  proclaims  so  fully 
the  progress  which  society  has  made,  both  in  knowledge  of 
Nature  and  in  sympathy  for  man. 

Let  it  not  be  thought,  however,  that  a  hospital  for  the 
sick  and  the  injured  is  a  mere  gratuitous  benefaction  to 
those  whom  it  may  receive  as  patients.  Like  every  other 
judicious  social  charity,  it  reacts  with  manifold  blessings 
on  its  authors  and  on  the  whole  community.  The  spirit 
in  which  it  has  its  origin,  and  in  which  it  must  be  sus- 
tained, is  essential  to  the  well-being  and  progress  of  society. 
Who  would  wish  to  live  where  it  does  not  exist  ?  All  that 
makes  up  the  higher  life  of  man  springs  from  the  sympa- 
thy which  he  feels  for  his  fellow-man.  It  is  what  we  do 
for  others  that  ennobles  and  hallows  what  we  do  for  our- 
selves. Even  the  wealth  for  which  we  strive  so  earnestly, 
and  to  which  we  cling  so  fondly,  is  made  up  of  something 
more  than  mere  material  gains.  It  is  the  result  of  a  thou- 
sand dependencies  and  relationships  without  which  it  could 
not  exist.  It  grows  only  under  the  protection  of  law.  It 
dwells  securely  only  in  the  midst  of  intelligence  and  vir- 
tue. It  puts  forth  its  energies  and  spreads  its  agencies, 
on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left,  only  where  justice  and 
humanity  and  religious  faith  have  fixed  their  abode.  For 


ADDRESS.  379 

the  presence  of  these,  the  highest  attributes  of  manhood 
and  of  society,  no  greed  of  gain,  no  tireless  industry,  no 
sagacious  forethought,  can  long  be  a  substitute.  They 
must  be  secured  and  maintained,  or  high  prosperity  will 
take  its  departure.  This  is  a  part  of  that  "  Moral  Law 
of  Accumulation"  which  a  great  Teacher  among  our- 
selves used  so  often  to  expound  to  us.  It  underlies  ail 
that  we  call  Political  Economy,  and  is  as  truly  a  condi- 
tion of  social  wealth  as  is  the  labor  from  which  it  seems 
to  spring.  Adam  Smith  designed  his  great  work  on  the 
Wealth  of  Nations  to  be  a  supplement  to  that  which  he 
had  already  written  on  the  Moral  Sentiments;  and  the 
liberal  science  of  which  he  is  the  founder,  in  its  essential 
doctrines,  is  but  an  expansion  of  the  law,  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 

It  is  of  generous  sentiments  and  comprehensive  consid- 
erations like  these  that  a  charity  such  as  we  have  here 
established  should  be  the  full  and  perfect  expression.  It 
springs  from  cultivated  Christian  humanity,  but  it  gathers 
to  itself,  and  concentrates  upon  its  construction  and  ap- 
pointments, all  the  fruits  both  of  scientific  knowledge  and 
of  mechanical  and  professional  skill.  Its  efficiency  and 
success  as  a  place  for  the  treatment  of  disease  must  de- 
pend on  the  careful  observance  of  a  multitude  of  delicate 
but  indispensable  laws.  Everything  that  can  affect,  how- 
ever remotely,  the  sources  of  human  health,  or  the  vigor 
of  human  life,  is  to  be  thought  of  in  the  selection  of  its 
site,  in  the  planning  of  its  architecture,  and  in  the  final 
construction  of  its  buildings.  The  exposure  to  the  rays 
of  the  sun,  the  underlying  soil,  the  surrounding  air,  the 
adjacent  water,  the  material  to  be  used  in  the  formation  of 
its  several  parts  both  within  and  without,  its  division  into 
apartments  and  their  dimensions  and  relations  to  each 
other,  its  capacity  for  the  amplest  ventilation,  its  adapta- 
tion for  interior  salubrity,  and  all  its  arrangements  for 


380  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

easy,  quiet,  and  most  efficient  administration,  are  but 
specimens  and  illustrations  of  the  elements  that  enter  into 
a  problem  which  social  philanthropy,  after  the  lapse  of 
many  ages,  has  even  now  but  imperfectly  solved.  Let 
errors  be  made  in  any  of  these  conditions  of  success,  and 
a  hospital  will  not  fail  to  disclose  glaring  defects,  such  as 
have  rendered  perhaps  one  half  of  all  that  now  exist  com- 
paratively inadequate  to  the  ends  for  which  they  were 
designed.  Indeed,  it  is  only  within  the  past  thirty  or  forty 
years  that  the  healing  virtues  of  sunlight  and  air  have 
been  fully  understood,  and  it  is  probably  a  much  shorter 
period  since  any  mechanical  arrangements  for  employing 
them  as  curative  agents  were  devised.  Since  this  has 
been  done,  sanitary  rules  have  undergone  the  greatest  of 
revolutions.  The  idea  has  been  wholly  abandoned  that 
any  large  building  that  is  tolerably  accessible  will  answer 
the  purposes  of  a  hospital.  We  have  bidden  farewell  to 
isolated  chambers  with  here  and  there  a  curtained  window, 
and  in  their  place  have  been  substituted  lofty  pavilions, 
whose  sides  present  an  almost  unbroken  surface  of  glass  to 
the  rays  alike  of  the  morning  and  the  evening  sun ;  and  long 
wards  or  continuous  chambers,  adjusted  to  a  temperature 
sufficiently  uniform,  and  ventilated  with  unfailing  currents 
of  atmospheric  air  that  will  continually  replace  all  that 
is  consumed  by  the  patients  and  their  attendants  within. 
The  languishing  victim  of  injury  or  disease  is  thus  kept 
under  the  immediate  influence  of  Nature's  own  most  po- 
tent medicaments,  while  he  also  receives  all  the  aid  that 
the  highest  professional  science  and  the  most  practiced 
professional  skill  are  able  to  render. 

Such  has  been  the  endeavor  in  the  work  whose  external 
completion  we  celebrate  to-day.  It  is  a  most  important 
step  in  the  social  progress  of  the  State,  but  it  has  not 
been  taken  until  its  necessity  had  long  been  acknow- 
ledged, or  until  most  of  the  States  around  us  had  set  us 


ADDRESS.  381 

the  example.  Indeed,  our  history  shows  that  our  works 
of  public  beneficence  have  scarcely  kept  pace  either  with 
our  social  needs  or  with  our  increase  in  wealth.  For  three 
quarters  of  a  century  the  University  stood  alone,  —  the 
solitary  public  institution  which  Rhode  Island  wealth  had 
mainly  endowed.  The  Butler  Hospital  for  the  Insane 
was  not  begun  till  its  necessity  had  been  so  clearly  de- 
monstrated that  none  presumed  to  question  it.  Other 
charities,  more  strictly  local  in  their  character  and  influ- 
ence, have  since  arisen  to  illustrate  and  to  promote  the 
growing  liberality  of  the  community,  until  the  way  was  at 
length  prepared  for  this  far  greater  and  more  comprehen- 
sive undertaking  which  has  now  been  so  liberally  accom- 
plished. 

The  need  of  a  general  hospital  for  the  sick  and  the 
injured,  in  the  midst  of  a  population  so  largely  employed 
in  the  mechanic  arts,  was  first  urged  upon  public  atten- 
tion in  this  city  by  the  gentlemen  of  the  medical  profes- 
sion, who,  better  than  any  others,  knew  how  much  suffer- 
ing was  occasioned,  and  how  much  life  was  lost,  because 
there  was  no  such  institution  here.  In  October,  1851,  the 
Providence  Medical  Association  appointed  a  committee 
of  their  fraternity  to  consider  the  subject,  and  to  report 
a  mode  in  which  it  might  most  effectually  be  brought  to 
the  consideration  of  the  public.  This  was  done  at  the  in- 
stance of  their  President,  Dr.  Usher  Parsons,  our  vener- 
able friend,  who  to-day  beholds  the  full  accomplishment 
of  all  his  benevolent  plans.  With  the  approval  of  the 
Association,  they  addressed  a  circular  letter  to  every  citi- 
zen of  Providence  who  was  assessed  with  a  tax  of  one 
hundred  dollars  or  more.  It  bore  the  well-known  names 
of  Usher  Parsons,  J.  Mauran,  Lewis  L.  Miller,  Richmond 
Brownell,  George  Capron,  S.  A.  Arnold,  and  C.  W.  Fa- 
byan.  The  letter,  however,  was  so  far  in  advance  of  any 
general  interest  in  its  object,  that  it  met  with  no  effectual 


382  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

response.  In  the  following  year  the  Association,  still 
more  deeply  impressed  with  the  importance  of  the  enter- 
prise, addressed  a  petition  to  the  City  Council,  to  which 
they  also  obtained  the  signatures  of  many  leading  citizens 
not  connected  with  the  profession.  The  petition  prayed 
that  the  Tockwotten  estate,  then  as  now  the  seat  of  the 
Reform  School,  should  be  appropriated  to  the  uses  of  a 
hospital  to  be  supported  entirely  at  private  expense,  when 
subscriptions  should  be  obtained  to  the  amount  of  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  The  members  of  the  Association  also 
offered  their  own  gratuitous  services  as  physicians  and 
surgeons,  in  furtherance  of  the  benevolent  object  they 
sought  to  accomplish.  The  liberal-minded  gentleman1 
who  then  presided  over  our  municipal  affairs  commended, 
in  his  annual  address,  the  need  of  a  hospital  to  the  special 
consideration  of  the  Council.  The  proposal  received  from 
them  a  respectful  attention,  and  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  confer  with  the  representatives  of  the  Medical 
Association.  The  movement,  however,  proved  to  be  pre- 
mature. The  fifty  thousand  dollars  were  not  subscribed ; 
the  committee  of  the  Council  did  not  agree  in  opinion  as  to 
the  propriety  of  diverting  the  Tockwotten  estate  from  the 
purpose  to  which  it  had  already  been  devoted  ;  and  the  pro- 
ject of  a  general  hospital  passed  from  the  consideration  of 
the  City  Government,  though  it  was  still  cherished  in  the 
thoughts  of  many  a  benevolent  mind  in  the  community. 

The  real  origin,  however,  of  the  institution  as  it  is  now 
established,  is  associated  with  the  benevolent  designs  of  a 
late  eminent  citizen  2  who  had  already  impressed  his  sound 
judgment,  his  large  public  spirit,  and  his  thoughtful  gen- 
erosity upon  nearly  every  social  interest  of  his  native 

1  Hon.  James  Y.  Smith,  then  Mayor  of  Providence. 

2  Moses  Brown  Ives,  who  died  August  7,  1857.     In  his  will  he 
constituted  his  brother,  Robert  Hale  Ives,  and  his  son,  Thomas  Poyn- 
ton  Ives,  trustees  of  the  bequest  here  mentioned. 


ADDRESS.  383 

State,  and  who,  in  the  closing  days  of  his  useful  and 
honored  life,  bequeathed  to  his  trustees  the  sum  of  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  to  be  devoted  to  such  objects  of  public 
beneficence  as  they  should  select.  A  portion  of  this 
liberal,  bequest  had  been  expended  for  other  charities 
which  claimed  its  aid,  and  forty  thousand  dollars  re- 
mained for  future  appropriation.  It  was  in  the  spring 
of  1863  that  the  two  gentlemen  who  had  been  charged 
with  this  benevolent  trust,  believing  that  the  time  had 
now  come  for  the  realization  of  hopes  which  had  long 
been  cherished,  decided  to  set  apart  the  remainder  of  this 
bequest  for  the  purpose  with  which  it  is  now  inseparably 
identified.  It  was  by  them  that  the  enterprise,  which  had 
failed  before,  was  now  revived  on  a  broader  scale  and 
with  a  more  comprehensive  design,  and  it  was  at  their 
instance  that  the  Rhode  Island  Hospital  was  called  into 
existence.  The  eminent  physicians  who,  twelve  years  be- 
fore, had  set  forth  the  need  of  such  an  institution  and 
made  so  earnest  an  appeal  for  its  establishment,  were 
happily  all  living,  and,  with  five  others  added  to  their 
number,  they  were  now  invited  to  seek  a  legislative  act 
of  incorporation.  They  readily  accepted  the  invitation, 
and  immediately  organized  themselves  for  the  purpose. 
A  charter  was  prepared  and  enacted  by  the  legislature 
in  March,  1863,  and  the  Rhode  Island  Hospital  became 
a  corporate  institution  of  the  State.  Its  corporators,  all 
of  whom  were  at  first  physicians,  immediately  directed 
their  attention  to  this  beautiful  and  salubrious  site,  which 
for  three  quarters  of  a  century  had  been  used  by  the  peo- 
ple of  Providence  for  hospital  purposes.  They  addressed 
a  memorial  to  the  City  Council,  praying  that  so  much  of 
this  land  as  was  then  public  property  might  be  conveyed 
to  this  corporation,  to  be  used  forever  for  the  purposes 
of  the  new  institution.  The  land  was  readily  granted  on 
the  condition  that  the  corporation  should  first  of  all  secure 


384  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

a  subscription  to  the  amount  of  at  least  seventy-five  thou- 
sand dollars.  The  two  gentlemen,  who  had  given  the  first 
impulse  to  the  movement,  now,  in  their  capacity  as  trus- 
tees, subscribed  the  sum  of  forty  thousand  dollars,  and  as 
individuals  they  added  for  themselves,  one  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars,  and  the  other  ten  thousand  dollars  more. 
The  conditions  were  fulfilled,  and  the  land  was  immedi- 
ately conveyed.  A  grant  like  this  was  liberal  and  honor- 
able, and  worthy  of  the  city  in  whose  name  it  was  made ; 
and  the  act  of  private  munificence  which  fulfilled  its  con- 
ditions secured  at  once,  as  the  site  of  this  noble  charity, 
a  spot  whose  salubrity  of  situation,  whose  readiness  of 
access,  and  whose  obvious  advantages  of  every  kind,  all 
combine  to  render  it  the  most  eligible  that  could  have 
been  chosen. 

But  even  with  this  auspicious  beginning,  a  vast  labor 
still  remained  to  be  performed.  The  grand  idea  that 
animated  the  movement  was  to  have  a  hospital  of  the 
very  highest  order.  It  had  also  been  agreed  that,  out  of 
the  subscriptions,  there  should  be  set  apart  at  least  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  as  a  fund  to  aid  in  maintaining 
it.  Beyond  this,  the  whole  enterprise  was  thus  far  only 
a  benevolent  purpose  in  a  comparatively  few  minds  for 
meeting  a  long  existing  social  want.  The  design  was  to 
be  elaborated  and  matured,  and  wrought  into  proportions 
that  should  insure  its  practical  success.  Information  was 
to  be  obtained  and  diffused  in  the  community,  public  in- 
terest was  to  be  awakened  in  its  behalf,  and,  most  impor- 
tant of  all,  a  sum  of  money,  larger  than  had  ever  before 
been  contributed  for  any  one,  I  may  almost  say  for  all, 
of  the  charitable  institutions  in  the  State,  was  to  be  so- 
licited and  obtained  from  the  bounty  of  our  citizens.  The 
time,  too,  was  one  of  unequaled  public  peril  and  alarm. 
The  Civil  War  was  at  the  height  of  its  grim  and  desolat- 
ing fury,  and  on  the  day  on  which  the  books  were  opened, 


ADDRESS.  335 

and  the  two  earliest  and  largest  of  the  general  subscrip- 
tions —  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  each  —  were  made,  the 
rebel  army  was  entering  Pennsylvania,  and  the  bloody 
tide  of  battle  seemed  to  be  rolling  to  the  very  borders  of 
New  England.  As  the  result  however  proved,  it  was  one 
of  those  moments  in  history  that  are  most  favorable  to 
every  benevolent  as  well  as  to  every  heroic  enterprise. 
Patriotism  was  kindled  to  its  utmost  fervor  in  behalf  of 
the  distracted  republic.  Our  brothers  and  our  sons  were 
struggling  and  dying  in  our  defense.  Every  breeze  bore 
to  us  some  wail  of  suffering  from  battlefields  now  nearer 
than  ever  before.  Anxiety  for  the  absent  or  sorrow  for 
the  lost  was  in  all  our  homes.  It  was  a  time  when,  if 
ever,  men  are  inspired  with  generous  sentiments,  and  are 
ready  to  acknowledge  the  high  humanities  and  duties  that 
bind  them  to  each  other  and  to  their  race.  It  was  among 
the  compensations  of  that  dreadful  period  of  national  suf- 
fering, that  it  opened  new  fountains  of  benevolence  in  all 
our  hearts,  and  revealed  to  us  resources  which  we  had  not 
thought  of  before  for  doing  good  to  others.  In  the  true 
spirit  of  such  a  time,  the  people  of  the  State  generously 
responded  to  the  appeal  which  was  made  to  them  in  be- 
half of  this  long  delayed  and  much  needed  charity.  The 
subscription  was  commenced  early  in  July,  1863,  and  at 
the  end  of  sixty  days  it  had  reached  an  amount  of  more 
than  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  This  amount  was 
soon  increased  to  three  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  at 
the  present  time  it  has  reached  a  total  of  three  hundred 
and  eighty  thousand  dollars,  which  has  been  subscribed 
in  the  cities  of  Providence  and  Newport,  and  in  eighteen 
of  the  towns  of  the  State.  There  is,  I  believe,  no  class 
of  our  citizens  who  have  not  acknowledged  its  claims,  and 
are  not  represented  in  the  contributions  which  have  been 
made  for  its  establishment.  They  have  come  not  from 
the  rich  alone,  but  from  the  benevolent  in  every  grada- 


386  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

tion  of  wealth ;  and  among  them  all  there  are  none  more 
suggestive  of  the  real  character  of  this  comprehensive 
charity  than  those  —  however  small  in  amount  —  which 
were  made  by  the  laboring  mechanics  in  several  of  our 
industrial  establishments,  and  by  ten  of  the  churches  of 
Providence,  in  the  names  of  their  respective  ministers,  to 
express  their  sympathy  with  this  truly  Christian  enter- 
prise. In  addition  to  the  subscription  thus  nobly  carried 
forward,  the  site  originally  conveyed  by  the  wise  liberality 
of  the  municipal  authorities  has  been  greatly  enlarged  by 
the  benevolent  forethought  of  a  few  of  the  earliest  friends 
of  the  undertaking,  and  provision  has  also  been  made  for 
a  still  further  enlargement,  in  case  the  interests  of  the 
hospital  shall  require  it. 

Nor,  as  we  gather  here  to-day,  can  we  fail  to  recall  those 
benefactors  who  have  been  numbered  with  the  dead,  be- 
fore its  doors  are  opened  or  its  work  is  begun.  It  had  its 
origin,  as  has  been  said,  in  the  munificent  bequest  of  one 
who  in  his  life  was  a  leader  in  every  enterprise  of  public 
improvement,  and  whose  benefactions  and  services  to 
Learning,  Philanthropy,  and  Religion  illustrate  alike  the 
best  uses  of  wealth  and  the  highest  qualities  of  character. 
Death  came  to  him  while  he  was  yet  in  the  glory  and 
strength  of  a  vigorous  manhood,  but  it  did  not  thwart  his 
generous  purposes  for  the  good  of  the  community  with 
which  he  was  identified,  and  his  dying  legacy  was  de- 
signed for  any  great  charity  that  should  require  its  aid. 
One  *  of  the  physicians  who,  seventeen  years  ago,  first  set 
forth  the  pressing  need  of  a  hospital  in  this  city,  and  who 
was  afterwards  one  of  the  earliest  members  of  this  cor- 
poration, has  passed  away ;  and  three 2  other  physicians 

1  Dr.  Richmond  Brownell,  one  of  the  original  committee  of  the 
Providence  Medical  Association. 

2  Dr.  Ezekiel  Fowler,  Dr.  Nathaniel  Miller,  and  Dr.  J.  Davis  Jones. 
The  books  thus  received  number  about  eleven  hundred  volumes.     To 
these  Dr.  Usher  Parsons  has  added  two  hundred  and  fifty  more. 


ADDRESS.  387 

of  the  State,  two  of  them  dying  in  the  prime  of  their 
career,  have  bequeathed  their  books  to  its  medical  library 
as  an  expression  of  their  faith  in  its  usefulness  and  its 
destiny.  We  also  gratefully  reckon  among  its  leading 
benefactors  another,1  —  himself  long  a  trusted  physician 
here,  —  who,  from  the  day  when  this  hospital  was  first 
proposed  to  the  day  of  his  lamented  death,  devoted  to  it 
an  almost  unceasing  care,  and  who,  as  chairman  of  its 
Executive  Committee  for  soliciting  funds,  brought  to  that 
arduous  work  a  tireless  energy  and  zeal,  and  performed 
in  its  prosecution  an  amount  of  labor  which  no  one,  and 
not  all  even  of  his  associates,  earnest  though  they  were, 
were  able  to  equal  or  to  approach.  And  there  is  one 
other  2  whose  memory  now  comes  back  to  the  thoughts  of 
us  all,  radiant  with  the  lustre  that  belongs  to  heroic  pa- 
triotism and  pure  philanthropy.  The  worthy  son  of  an 
honored  sire,  he  was  associated  with  the  earliest  begin- 
nings of  this  institution,  and  as  one  of  the  trustees  of  his 
father's  will  he  placed  at  its  foundation  the  corner-stone 
on  which  it  has  been  built.  He  added  his  own  generous 
gift  of  ten  thousand  dollars ;  and  having  worn  out  his  life 
in  the  service  of  his  country  in  her  years  of  peril  and  trial, 
he  went  abroad  to  seek  for  health  which  he  did  not  find, 
and  died  in  a  foreign  land.  But  ere  he  left  his  Rhode 
Island  home  he  wrote  in  his  will,  along  with  other  liberal 
provisions  for  the  public  good,  a  bequest  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars  for  the  noble  charity  which  he  had  helped  to 
found,  and  of  which  he  thus  became  by  far  the  most 
munificent  benefactor. 

1  will  not  attempt  a  delineation  of  this  beautiful  build- 
ing, in  whose  faultless  architecture  massive  strength  and 
exquisite  grace  are  so  admirably  blended  in  securing  every 

1  Samuel  Boyd  Tobey,  M.  D.,  who  died  June  23,  1867. 

2  Thomas   Poynton   Ives,   Volunteer  Commander  in   the  United 
States  Navy,  who  died  at  Havre,  France,  November  17,  1865. 


388  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

arrangement  for  convenience,  and  in  fulfilling  every  re- 
quirement of  sanitary  law.  It  will  soon  be  officially 
described  by  one 1  who  assisted  in  forming  its  plan,  and 
has  watched  over  its  progress  from  the  beginning,  and 
whose  large  acquaintance  with  the  leading  hospitals  of 
the  world,  aided  by  recent  opportunities  of  inspecting 
them,  gives  authority  to  his  deliberate  conclusion  that 
our  own  is  not  surpassed  by  any  other  that  exists.  It  is 
built  in  accordance  with  the  most  approved  models,  and, 
so  far  as  is  known,  nothing  has  been  omitted  of  all  that 
skill  has  thus  far  devised  or  experience  has  suggested  in 
providing  for  the  best  treatment  of  disease,  and  in  guard- 
ing against  every  peril  that  may  beset  a  hospital.  There 
is  no  more  dangerous  fallacy  than  that  which  lurks  in  the 
suggestion  that  all  this  is  not  required  for  those  who  are 
most  likely  to  come  here  for  medical  treatment.  Such 
a  view  is  sanctioned  neither  by  humanity  nor  wisdom. 
These  provisions  are  not  for  the  gratification  of  the  lan- 
guid valetudinarian,  but  for  the  comfort  and  restoration 
of  the  sick  and  the  injured.  A  human  frame  when  thus 
afflicted,  be  it  that  of  beggar  or  of  prince,  requires  sub- 
stantially the  same  healing  agencies  for  its  cure.  Neither 
medical  nor  surgical  practice  can  vary  much  with  the  taste 
of  the  patient.  The  same  ample  air  must  be  provided 
for  all.  The  medicines  of  one  must  be  as  genuine  and  as 
carefully  prepared  as  those  of  another.  The  anaesthetics 
and  the  stimulants  which  are  prescribed  must  be  equally 
potent  and  equally  costly,  if  pain  is  to  be  assuaged,  if 
disease  is  to  be  baffled,  and  if  life  is  to  be  saved.  A  hos- 
pital must  take  the  lead  in  all  medical  improvements.  Its 
essential  work  should  be  thoroughly  done,  or  it  should  not 
be  attempted.  It  has,  heretofore,  been  the  aspiration  of 
this  corporation  to  have  a  hospital  building  that  is  fully 
equal  to  the  highest  standard  of  the  age,  and  as  nearly 
1  Thomas  P.  Shepard,  M.  D. 


ADDRESS.  389 

perfect  as  can  now  be  built.  Other  views  may  hereafter 
prevail,  and  other  methods  may  be  adopted :  but  so  long 
as  separate  wings,  connected  by  open  arcades  with  one 
central  building,  shall  be  favorable  to  the  classification 
and  the  isolation  of  the  sick,  and  to  the  administration  in- 
cident to  their  treatment ;  so  long  as  the  light  of  the  sun 
and  the  unadulterated  air  in  ever-fresh  supplies  shall 
continue  to  be  Nature's  great  restorers,  these  pavilions 
and  wards,  and  these  varied  appointments  for  cleanliness, 
comfort,  and  care,  can  never  be  other  than  most  suitable 
for  the  humane  objects  to  which  they  are  consecrated. 

Standing  at  this  entrance  of  its  opening  career,  we  an- 
ticipate with  delight  the  blessings  which  this  new  charity 
will  scatter  along  its  path.  They  will  develop  and  ex- 
pand in  ever-growing  proportions  through  all  the  years  of 
its  progress.  The  first  and  most  immediate  recipients  of 
these  blessings  will  be  the  suffering  patients  who  will  re- 
pair to  it  for  medical  and  surgical  treatment.  They  will 
come  from  every  class  of  our  population,  for  the  benefits 
of  a  hospital,  in  the  present  condition  of  society,  are  not 
for  the  poor  and  the  homeless  alone.  It  concentrates  in  it- 
self medical  and  surgical  skill,  and  appliances  of  care  and 
treatment,  such  as  can  seldom  be  combined  in  any  private 
practice,  even  at  the  homes  of  the  most  affluent.  Many 
will  come  from  their  own  comfortable  abodes  to  purchase 
here  a  nursing  and  care,  a  skillful  treatment  and  a  con- 
stant watching,  which  elsewhere  they  may  not  be  able  to 
secure.  The  apprentice  who  has  been  disabled  by  injury, 
or  the  clerk  who  has  been  smitten  with  disease,  will  be 
glad  to  leave  his  narrow  lodgings  in  boarding-house  or 
hotel,  and  seek  here  the  healing  aid  which  would  be  there 
beyond  his  reach.  The  laborer,  stricken  down  in  the 
midst  of  his  toil  by  some  casualty  on  the  railroad,  some 
accident  at  the  mill  or  the  wharf,  will  be  brought  here 
without  delay,  to  receive,  if  need  be  without  money  and 


390  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

without  price,  those  benefits  which  perhaps  no  money  or 
price  could  elsewhere  purchase.  This  has  been  the  his- 
tory of  every  hospital  that  has  truly  fulfilled  its  benevo- 
lent design,  and  it  cannot  fail  to  be  recorded  of  our  own. 
For  some  it  will  only  smooth  the  bed  of  death  ;  but  with 
the  blessing  of  Heaven  resting  upon  its  agencies,  it  will 
restore  health  in  long  succession  to  multitudes  of  the  sick, 
and  send  joy  and  gladness  to  families  in  every  part  of 
the  State,  that  without  its  benignant  ministry  would  have 
been  clouded  with  the  shadow  of  death. 

Nor  should  we  overlook  the  signal  advantages  which 
must  accrue  from  this  institution  to  the  members  of  the 
medical  profession,  who  have  already  evinced  their  inter- 
est in  its  founding,  and  pledged  to  it  their  continued  co- 
operation and  support.  When  the  Massachusetts  General 
Hospital  was  first  projected,  in  1810,  it  was  claimed  by 
those  eminent  physicians,  Dr.  James  Jackson  and  Dr. 
John  C.  Warren,  that  such  an  institution  is  essential  to 
high  professional  excellence.  And  the  subsequent  careers, 
so  lately  closed,  of  those  illustrious  practitioners  and 
teachers  of  medical  and  surgical  science,  fully  illustrate 
the  advantages  they  derived  from  the  noble  hospital  which 
they  helped  to  found,  and  of  which,  for  fifty  years,  they 
were  the  ornament  and  the  strength.  The  hospitals  of 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston  have  made  those 
cities  centres  of  medical  education  for  nearly  the  whole 
country.  And  with  the  aid  of  the  Rhode  Island  Hospital, 
why  may  we  not  have  a  Rhode  Island  Medical  School 
again  associated  with  our  own  University,  as  there  used 
to  be  some  forty  years  ago  ?  Indeed,  even  without  any 
formal  establishment  for  the  purpose,  the  hospital  will  be 
in  itself  a  school  of  practical  medicine  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  the  profession.  It  will  concentrate  a  know- 
ledge of  every  form  of  disease  ;  it  will  bring  together  the 
results  of  varied  experience  ;  it  will  stimulate  ingenuity, 


ADDRESS.  391 

and  suggest  improvements  and  discoveries.  It  was  in  our 
oldest  New  England  hospital  that  a  surgical  operation 
was  first  rendered  painless  by  the  inhalation  of  sulphuric 
ether,  and  it  was  in  a  hospital  in  Edinburgh  that  a  similar 
result  was  first  secured  by  the  use  of  chloroform.  It  is  in 
these  institutions,  in  all  modern  ages,  that  science  and 
skill  have  won  many  of  their  most  splendid  triumphs  in 
the  service  of  suffering  humanity.  Nor  are  such  benefits 
limited  to  the  profession  ;  for  who  of  us  is  not  the  gainer, 
and  that  in  large  proportions,  by  every  advantage  that  is 
afforded  and  every  aid  that  is  given  towards  forming,  for 
the  service  of  the  community,  the  wise  and  good  physi- 
cian, to  be  our  confidant  and  counselor,  our  guide  and 
friend  ? 

And  in  addition  to  these,  there  are  blessings  innumera- 
ble, both  social  and  moral,  that  will  flow  to  us  all,  and  to 
those  who  come  after  us,  from  a  beneficent  charity  like  this, 
founded  by  our  efforts,  committed  to  our  continual  care, 
and  appealing  to  us  through  all  generations  for  its  sup- 
port. Its  character  and  spirit  are  as  broad  as  the  suffer- 
ings it  is  designed  to  relieve.  Though  planted  in  Provi- 
dence, and  largely  aided  by  the  munificence  of  the  city,  it 
is  designed  for  the  people  of  Rhode  Island,  and  for  the 
wayfarer  and  the  stranger  who  may  seek  its  asylum.  Be- 
nevolent citizens  in  twenty  of  our  cities  and  towns  have 
contributed  to  its  founding,  and  to  these,  and  others  like 
them  in  every  town,  it  must  always  look  for  its  continued 
maintenance  and  efficiency.  It  rises  here  in  serene  beauty, 
the  fairest  structure  that  meets  the  eye  within  our  borders. 
It  towers  above  workshop  and  factory,  above  every  mon- 
ument of  our  busy  industry,  to  remind  us  of  that  higher 
humanity  and  that  Christian  civilization  from  which  it  has 
sprung,  and  to  which  all  our  industry  and  our  thrift  should 
at  last  be  tributary.  It  is  not  possessions  but  institutions, 
and  the  manner  in  which  they  are  maintained  and  admin- 


392  PUBLIC  ADDRESSES. 

istered,  that  proclaim  the  highest  character  of  a  people. 
Let  this  hospital,  then,  be  sustained  in  the  spirit  of  that 
large  liberality  in  which  it  has  been  begun  ;  let  its  every 
necessity  be  generously  supplied  as  soon  as  it  is  known ; 
let  it  live  in  the  sympathies,  the  cooperation,  and  the  ser- 
vices of  the  people  of  the  State.  Thus  will  it  honor  for- 
ever the  name  which  it  bears.  Thus  will  it  bring  upon 
all  its  benefactors  the  grateful  benedictions  of  multitudes 
ready  to  perish,  whose  sufferings  have  been  lightened, 
whose  limbs  have  been  restored,  and  whose  lives  have 
been  saved  in  these  halls,  which  to-day  we  reverently  con- 
secrate to  the  service  of  Him  who  on  earth  delighted  to 
heal  the  sick  and  minister  to  the  wretched. 


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